Mistaken
by hunterofartemis080
Summary: All Time Lords must repent for their sins, but as always there's a new companion to help them along. Will the Doctor and Adelaide be able to repair what they broke, or have the stars fallen for the final time? Eighth in the Crossed Stars. Time Lady - 12/OC
1. Tutor

**Tutor**

"A non-human is approaching."

Adelaide looked up from her current position deep within her TARDIS. She'd moved the ship to connect to her office, so she could hide inside it but would be able to emerge if someone came to see her. At the moment, she was reading through a student's essay, though she was, honestly, searching for something else to do. This essay was not the best.

"Show me."

One of the walls beside where the interface had appeared flickered on, becoming a screen instead of its normal writing, like the rest of her walls. Almost everything in her TARDIS served multiple purposes.

Adelaide didn't know who she was expecting to see approaching her office, but it wasn't a hairless humanoid who looked to be mumbling something to himself. He stopped outside of her office door, glanced up and down the corridor, and knocked.

"Is he dangerous?"

The interface, who still looked similar to Adelaide's first regeneration, blinked. "No." Another scan, this one dipping into his mind in the way only Time Lord technology could. "He has come on behalf of River Song."

Adelaide may have smiled, in a different time, in a different ship, at the mention of the woman. But now River Song meant the Doctor and the Doctor meant missing him and she couldn't smile at that.

Missing him hadn't gone away this time. It was nearly March, and she hadn't stopped missing him.

"He is not leaving," the interface reported, which forced Adelaide to blink and wipe something from her cheek that she refused to admit was real. She would not cry over a man who thought the universe owed him something. "Would you like my recommendation?"

Adelaide glanced at the interface. "Yes."

"Talk to him."

She didn't speak again as she pushed herself up and made her way to where this strange humanoid had appeared. The interface flickered off once she moved and left the TARDIS. She dropped her jacket on her desk chair before opening the main office door, not bothering to smile. "I trust you're not here to harm me."

The man's eyes widened and he had the decency to look concerned. "No! Of course not! I'm Professor River Song's friend." He stuck out a hand. "Nardole."

Adelaide just stepped back and left the door open for him, going to lean back against her desk and cross her arms. Nardole, as she was taking the word as the humanoid's name, was left standing oddly in the center of the room, wringing his hands until he was aware of the action and forced them to his sides. "Before you begin, I trust you're from my same relative timeline?"

Nardole nodded. "Yes, yes, of course." She nodded, which only made Nardole look more nervous. "There's something...underneath this school."

"Something you're responsible for?"

He made a face and caught himself. "It's why I'm here. To look after it."

"And I can't know what it is."

"Right."

"Why here then?"

"There was space."

She raised her eyebrows. "Space? There's plenty of space in the universe, Nardole. Why this space?" He didn't seem to have a prepared answer. Nardole floundered, mouth gaping. "Since you're an associate of River Song, I'm going to trust that you have some sense and would not put something actually dangerous underneath a human school." Nardole nodded enthusiastically. "Then, thank you for informing me about this something. Unless the situation has the potential to escalate, I believe this should be the extent of our communication."

Nardole frowned. "But..."

"I'm not interested in dealing with non-human aliens right now." She was barely interested in human aliens. But Nardole especially meant River Song and River Song meant him and she couldn't do that now. She didn't care that this was technically running away. It was easier. It hurt less. "Does the situation have the potential to escalate?"

Nardole looked a bit like a scolded child, head bowing. "No."

"Thank you for telling me about it." Adelaide uncrossed her arms, resting her hands on her desk. "You may go, Nardole."

Nardole rushed back to the door but paused before he actually left. "Have you heard from him?"

Adelaide gripped her desk. "Is there someone to have heard from?" She hadn't been lying when she'd told the Doctor that she had faith in his survival. That man had the cursed ability to live through anything. No matter where he went after she left him, no matter what he went through, Adelaide knew he would survive in some way.

She didn't know if she was hoping for it. Didn't know what she'd do if he actually turned up at her office.

Nardole didn't answer and Adelaide didn't force him. She just waited until her office door fell closed again before bringing her hands together to twist the bracelet from the Doctor. She still hadn't taken it off. Still hadn't been able to make herself go that far.

What would she do if the Doctor had actually survived? If she actually saw him again?

If the universe pulled them together again?

She'd told him that he couldn't come looking for her after he survived. Told him he couldn't contact her. Had even turned off her TARDIS's ability to scan for another TARDIS. She did not want him to seek her out and she would not seek him out.

She would only see him again if they encountered each other again, fixed event or not. If they managed to bump into each other out of the whole universe.

Adelaide didn't know if she was hoping for that or not.

Because she missed him. She missed him so much, she'd accepted how much she missed him. That she was missing the positive memories and positive presence and positive influence and tried to make certain that she also remembered all the bad things to keep herself from missing him too much.

But she still missed him.

And maybe it was worse because every rational part of her screamed that she shouldn't miss him. That he'd been a terrible influence. That he'd only torn her down. That he'd corrupted her. That he'd been too emotional and he'd made her too emotional and that she shouldn't care if she was a good woman or not.

But the rest of Adelaide, the part she didn't have a name for, missed him. Missed him so much that she would see a glint in a student's eyes and think of how similar it was to the Doctor before anything else. She would see kindness and think of him and hear laughter and think of him and hear someone defending what was right and think of him.

She'd see a good man and think of him.

Adelaide wanted him back and she didn't want him back.

Wanted him back for all the good he could do for the universe, all the people he'd helped and lives he'd saved. Wanted him back for the way he could make her smile and the way he would trace her freckles and the way he understood when and how much she wanted someone touching her.

But he believed time should bow to him. He believed the universe owed him something for all those lives and all that good. He believed he had a right to interfere, to make choices for other people.

Adelaide couldn't decide which meant more.

Which was why she didn't want to see him again.

She didn't care if he was alive, so long as she didn't know about it. So long as their paths never crossed or stories of his actions never trickled down to her.

She wanted him to be Schrodinger's Cat, to use the human thought experiment.

That would be so much easier. She would be able to miss him until she could stop, or at least make it hurt less.

Because right now...she missed him so hard that it always hurt. Even when she didn't directly see someone or something that bore a strong resemblance to the other last Time Lord...she would miss him. And it would hurt.

It would always hurt.

|C-S|

The Doctor could tell that something was different about Nardole, but he had no idea precisely what that thing was. It was the beginning of March when he first noticed that the humanoid was acting strangely – at least, stranger than his normal level of strangeness – but Nardole, surprisingly, managed to stop himself from revealing anything to the Doctor. The Doctor did give him some credit for that. It was annoying, but he did acknowledge that it was at least a little impressive.

They'd been stuck on Earth at this university for almost seventy years by the time that Nardole began to be strange, so the Doctor was particularly curious about why it had taken so long.

Nardole refused to share. The Doctor had to keep stopping himself from telling the humanoid that it was rude to not share.

He'd been tempted to ask Missy if she knew anything about what could have changed with Nardole, but he was almost certain that the humanoid didn't go around chatting with the madwoman they had locked in a vault.

If Adelaide had been here, he would have asked and she would have known because she knew everything.

She was brilliant and she hated him.

For a little, the Doctor had hated her too, but he hadn't been able to maintain that. It was still present, to a degree, but not as strong as when he'd been sent into his confession dial. He felt the centuries had helped him come to terms with it.

He missed her and hated her and wished he could see her smile because he loved her.

That was the worst bit about all of this. He still loved her.

On his good days, he loved that she contradicted him, that they didn't perfectly match. That they could disagree.

Yes, their disagreements got out of hand, but the Doctor could take some responsibility for that. The Time Lords had known for centuries that they needed to get better at communicating. That they needed to actually discuss problems they had in order to begin to work towards fixing them.

It was easier said than done.

Especially when she hated him.

On his good days, the Doctor thought she was right to hate him. He hated him.

On his bad days...the Doctor didn't like to think about who he was when his anger got the best of him. When he just wished that she would let herself feel emotions and let herself save people and help people and love people. Just wished that she would understand that they could do so much to make the universe a better place! That they had a responsibility to help people! A duty! A right!

The Doctor pressed his fist to his forehead. He tried to force himself back to a good day. Adelaide didn't like bad days. He didn't like bad days. But they were so easy to fall into...

He wondered if Adelaide had bad days. He'd never thought to ask what dark places her mind could fall into.

And now he never could.

|C-S|

Adelaide wasn't certain how she managed to avoid seeing Nardole over the next two months, but she had the distinct impression the humanoid was hiding from her. She didn't really care. So long as he didn't bother her and didn't pose any actual danger to the planet, they could continue in their separate existences, never crossing.

Just like her and the Doctor before the Time War.

Somehow, Adelaide was more surprised about that lack of intersection than she was about not seeing Nardole. Even if she and the Doctor had had all of the universe and all of time to avoid each other in, they had both inspired stories. Their presence places had ripples, as much as Adelaide attempted to avoid making them.

She tried to never leave anything behind, but, occasionally, when she dropped back in on a planet a century or two later to document changes in both the people and the wildlife, she would find they'd developed a story of a woman who'd come from the sky. She knew similar things had happened for the Doctor. It was inevitable. They had legacies.

But Adelaide hadn't known that the Doctor existed. Not even the Time Lords had thought to mention the unregulated renegade Time Lord jumping around the universe. Not even the Corsair. She would have thought someone might have. It would have been the polite thing to do. The responsible thing.

They hadn't, so she hadn't known about him. Hadn't even had a sense.

It was almost strange that he now meant so much to her. That she now missed him so impossibly much.

Adelaide spent quite a bit of her time wondering exactly where the Doctor and her timelines could have intersected in the past. It was nicer to think of that than missing him, somehow. She worked off of the stories the Doctor had told, statements made in passing, and reactions to her own similar things. It wasn't concrete, obviously, she wouldn't be able to accomplish that without an exact record of all of their TARDIS's stops, but it was something.

It was nicer than missing him.

She was in the process of attempting to remember when she'd been on the starship Harmony and Redemption – the genocidal leader of a planet with a particularly interesting strain of bacteria had forced her to accompany them – when someone collided with her from the right.

Adelaide didn't fall, but she did drop the few books she'd been transporting.

"Oh my God," a young woman cried. "I'm so sorry!"

Adelaide took the woman's arm to stable herself. "It's completely fine, don't worry."

"Here, let me help." The woman bent and gathered all the books Adelaide had dropped. As she straightened, she looked at one of the books. Adelaide watched her interest and felt she recognized it, though she couldn't place it. "What's a drosophila melanogaster?"

"A fruit fly."

The woman frowned. "Why can't you just call it a fruit fly?"

"I didn't write the book."

She pointed at Adelaide. "Good point." She passed Adelaide the books.

"Thank you." Adelaide adjusted them in her arms. "Are you a student?"

The woman shook her head. "Oh, no, no. I work at the cafeteria."

Adelaide nodded. She didn't tend to eat from the cafeteria, namely because of a story the Doctor had told once about a school where Krillitane oil was lacing the cafeteria food. She didn't think anything similar was happening at St Luke, but the image had been implanted. "I don't make a habit of going there."

The woman nodded. "I thought so. I don't recognize you." She held out a hand for Adelaide to shake. "I'm Bill Potts."

"Adelaide Noble."

Bill glanced at the books again. "Do you study fruit flies?"

"Not specifically."

"I won't keep you, then," Bill said, stepping back. "Sorry for running into you."

"No worries. I'm equally to blame."

Bill pointed at her. "Come stop by the cafeteria some time. I'll give you extra chips."

Adelaide tried to smile. "I'll certainly think about it."

Bill waved and rushed off again. Adelaide didn't move immediately. She'd realized why she recognized Bill. What had looked so familiar.

What made something fall in the pit of Adelaide's stomach.

The Doctor would have picked this woman as a companion.

Adelaide had only seen him pick two – technically she'd also seen him pick Donna and Caroline, but Adelaide didn't remember that – but she knew what his companions were like. She knew what drew him to take one on in the first place, a draw that Adelaide herself had never felt.

She'd never understood companions before the Doctor. Never bothered to have one, even an assistant.

And then Clara...Adelaide understood now.

Adelaide blinked and brushed someone off her cheek that wasn't real, couldn't be real, wouldn't be real.

She tried not to miss Clara Oswald, but sometimes that was just as hard as missing the Doctor.

|C-S|

It was August and the Doctor couldn't help himself. He wanted a companion. Not a real one, he knew he couldn't have a real one. He was trapped on earth guarding a vault, he couldn't go off traveling with a companion.

But that didn't mean he didn't want one.

The Doctor would never have characterized himself as a teacher in the traditional sense – that was Adelaide, even if she sometimes attempted to hide it – but he did like showing people wonderful things. He did like helping beings learn and helping them to develop their appreciation of the marvel of the universe. That desire wasn't just going to stop just because he was stuck on earth.

He'd gotten out that desire mostly through lecturing to whichever students wanted to attend but the Doctor couldn't help it when his curiosity was further peaked. When he saw a young woman attending his lectures who wasn't a student.

A young woman with very apparent curiosity.

There was no harm in inviting her to his office to talk.

Adelaide would have disagreed. But she wasn't here anymore.

He would have asked her opinion if she was. He knew that she didn't completely see his TARDIS as hers, but companions were for her as much as they were for him. She had a right to offer her opinion.

Except she wasn't here. And she probably would never be here again.

The Doctor was working on his guitar when Bill Potts arrived to speak with him. Granted, he didn't realize when she'd come until Bill called out, "ahem."

Adelaide would have noticed. Adelaide always noticed.

The Doctor poked his head out through his inner office door to glance at her before ducking away again, quickly sonicing his guitar before leaving it. "Potts?" he asked Bill, narrowing his eyes at her.

Bill nodded. "Yeah."

"Bill Potts."

"You wanted to see me."

He moved around his office, rearranging a pile of papers by his window. "Er...you're not a student at this university."

"Nah, I work in the canteen."

He turned, pointing at her. "Yeah, but you come to my lectures."

Bill leaned back, quick to shake her head. "No, I don't. I never do that."

"I've seen you."

She was quick to recant her claim. "Love your lectures. They're totally awesome."

"Why'd you come to my lectures when you're not a student?"

"Okay, so my first day here, in the canteen, I was on chips. There was this girl. Student. Beautiful. Like a model, only with talking and thinking. She looked at you and you...perved." Bill was quite an animated storyteller. "Every time, automatic, like physics. Eye contact, perversion. So I gave her extra chips. Every time, extra chips. Like a reward for all the perversion. Every day, got myself on chips, rewarded her. Then finally, finally, she looked at me, like she'd noticed, actually noticed, all the extra chips. Do you know what I realized? She was fat. I'd fatted her. But that's life, innit? Beauty or chips." Bill shrugged. "I like chips. So did she. So that's okay."

The Doctor was frowning at her. "And how does that in any way explain why you keep coming to my lectures?"

She frowned too. "Yeah, it doesn't really, does it? I was hoping something would develop." She looked to the side, where his TARDIS was parked – with an 'out of order' sign to remind the Doctor he couldn't use it. "What's that? A police telephone box?"

"Yeah."

"Did you build it from a kit?"

"No, it came like that."

"Then how did you get it in here? The door's too small and so are the windows."

He moved to the window, gesturing at it. "I had the window and a part of the wall taken out and it was lifted in."

"What, with a crane?"

"Yeah, with a crane. It's heavier than it looks." He moved towards her again. "Why do you keep coming to my lectures?"

Bill shrugged. "Because I like them. Everybody likes them. They're amazing. Why me?"

He took a seat at his desk. "Why you what?"

"Well, plenty of people come to your lectures that aren't supposed to. Why pick on me?"

He shrugged. "Well, I noticed you."

"Yeah, but why?"

"Well, most people, when they don't understand something, they frown. You smile." Even Adelaide did, despite how much she claimed to hate not knowing. The Time Lady loved mysteries because they annoyed her.

Bill didn't take that long to consider what he'd said. "I'll tell you what I don't understand. You've been lecturing here for a long time. Like, fifty years, some people say. Nabella in the office says over seventy."

The Doctor nodded. "Yeah, and you're thinking, 'well, he doesn't look old enough'."

"No, I'm wondering what you're supposed to be lecturing on." The Doctor templed his fingers as she spoke. "It's like the university lets you do whatever you like. One time, you were going to give a lecture on quantum physics. You talked about poetry."

He shrugged. "Poetry, physics, same thing."

"How is it the same?"

"Because of the rhymes. What are you doing at this university?"

"I always wanted to come here."

"Yeah, to serve chips?"

Bill leaned back. "So anyway, am I nearly done?"

"Do you want to be?"

She stood, moving to leave. "See ya."

"You ever get less than a first, then it's over," the Doctor was successful in making her pause.

"You what?"

"A first. Every time or I stop immediately."

Bill frowned. "Stop what?"

"Being your personal tutor."

Bill shook her head. "But I'm not a student. I'm not part of the university. I never even applied."

The Doctor waved a hand. "We'll sort all that out later."

"You kinda have to sort that out earlier."

He grinned. "Leave it with me. I'm assured that it's a yes."

Bill grinned too. "Yes."

The Doctor pointed at her. "I'll see you at 6 pm every weekday. I don't care who's dying, never, ever be late. It's very rude and I'm very particular about time. And rudeness."

Bill nodded and almost left, but paused again. "Oh, er...people just call you the Doctor. What do I call you?"

He grinned again. "The Doctor."

"But Doctor's not a name. I can't just call you Doctor. Doctor what?"

So close.

|C-S|

Adelaide was surprised by how happy she was when she saw Bill around campus at the beginning of the next school year. She didn't intentionally seek the woman out, didn't even truly remember her. But when Adelaide saw Bill waiting for Shireen, who'd decided to take another of Adelaide's classes, Adelaide was happy.

"Oh, hi, Adelaide," Bill said, grinning when she saw Adelaide turning from the board. "How are those fruit flies?"

Shireen looked between them. "You know each other?"

"I ran into her. Literally."

Adelaide adjusted her desk chair as she passed it, coming to a stop at the door to her classroom. "And remembered me even after months have passed. Impressive. Should I be touched?"

"You're very memorable." Bill's eyes widened. "Hey, maybe I can take one of your classes! I'm a student now!" She shrugged. "Well, not technically, not yet."

Adelaide raised her eyebrows. "Technically?"

"I have a tutor."

Adelaide crossed her arms. "And who is this mysterious tutor?"

"He calls himself..."

"Adelaide!" Nardole's shout pulled all of their attention to where the humanoid was jogging up to them. "Adelaide!"

She raised her eyebrows. "Yes, Nardole?"

Nardole jogged to a stop, leaning against the wall. "Sorry, sorry...I wanted to talk to you about..."

"Bill, I'll see you and Shireen another time," Adelaide told the women, stepping back into her room. "I do believe he will want to speak to me in private."

Shireen nodded. "See you next class, professor!"

The two women walked off, Nardole replacing them in Adelaide's doorway. "Sorry for interrupting, Adelaide, it's just..."

"Has something gone wrong with the something you're meant to be guarding?"

"No, that's not it, it's just..." he took a deep breath and reached into his pocket. "Do you have change for a twenty?"

Adelaide stared at the humanoid. "Is that it? That's what you ran all the way here to tell me?"

"How do you know I ran all the way here?" She gave him a look. "But yes, it is." He held out the currency. "Do you have the change?"

Adelaide took the offered bill. "This is a ten, Nardole."

He nodded. "Ah, so it is. Do you have change for it?"

She moved back to her desk, going for a bag she left there. Adelaide was working on making her bag bigger on the inside, even if she knew that would give her quite a few similarities to a human fictional character that Missy – wherever that woman was – had modeled herself on. Regardless of the similarities, bigger on the inside bags were quite useful. "Here." Adelaide passed him a collection of bills.

Nardole grinned. It looked forced. "Thank you!"

"Is that really everything, Nardole?"

He nodded. "Yes, that is everything I came here to speak with you about. Everything. Entirely. No ulterior motives whatsoever."

Adelaide didn't believe him. But she wasn't ready to worry about it.

|C-S|

The Doctor stood before his lecture hall of students. He was technically listed as lecturing about the origins of agriculture, but, of course, the Doctor had decided there was something else he wanted to teach these curious humans.

As much as the curiosity sometimes hurt him.

Sometimes, if curiosity was paired with a particular positioning of the shoulders, or a particular furrow of the brow, or a particular smile, he thought of Adelaide. The comparison would come in a flash, ripping through him. Making him think of nothing else.

There were some days where that happened more than any other. Where he could barely look at someone and not think of Adelaide.

Those days were nothing like his bad days, but he knew they weren't good days.

That day, thankfully, it was a good day.

"Time!" he said, pushing himself standing from the table he'd been leaning against. "Time doesn't pass. The passage of time is an illusion, and life is the magician." He couldn't help but smirk at that. He was the magician. Adelaide was the scientist. They paired well. Two sides of the same coin. "Because life only lets you see one day at a time.

"You remember being alive yesterday, you hope you're going to be alive tomorrow, so it feels like you're traveling from one to the other. But nobody's moving anywhere. Movies don't really move. They're just pictures, lots and lots of pictures. All of them still, none of them moving. Just frozen moments. But if you experience those pictures one after the other, then everything comes alive."

There was always one thing Adelaide and the Doctor could agree on, regardless of how they felt about each other. The universe was marvelous. Time meant something and nothing all at once.

"Imagine if time all happened at once," he continued. "Every moment of your life laid out around you like a city. Streets full of buildings made of days. The day you were born, the day you die. The day you fall in love, the day that love ends. A whole city built from triumph and heartbreak and boredom and laughter and cutting your toenails. It's the best place you will ever be. Time is a structure relative to ourselves. Time is the space made by our lives where we stand together, forever." He turned to his chalkboard, writing the next words as he spoke. "Time And Relative Dimensions In Space." He turned back to the crowd, barely suppressing his smile and wonder and the recognition of Adelaide in a blonde girl in the middle of the class. "It means life."

He wondered if it would have made Adelaide smile.

|C-S|

When Bill Potts saw the Doctor and his bald friend running around a corner, she took notice.

After all, she was curious.

So she followed them.

They weren't that hard to track, especially since the cellar door they vanished through opened easily for her.

"So," the bald friend, Nardole, was saying, speaking in the dark from somewhere Bill couldn't quite see, "you're tutoring her, then?"

"Yes, I am," the Doctor said. He sounded defensive.

"Why?"

"Why not?"

"You're not supposed to get involved." Even if Bill couldn't see them, she felt the tension on the room shift. "What are you teaching her, anyway?"

"Everything."

"Well, how can you teach anyone everything?"

"Because everything rhymes. Links apple and alpha, synchronous and diverging. Descending multiples."

Something beeped. "Yeah, you want to turn that," Nardole said. There were more beeps. "You want to rotate it."

Something whirred, and then there was a clatter. Bill, who'd been moving towards the two men, ducked. She could just see them standing before a large metal door. Both men paused at the sounds, the Doctor looking over his shoulder. "The door upstairs, how did you set the security?"

"Friends only."

Bill moved back. It was very obvious that she wasn't supposed to be here. She may be curious, but she wasn't actually idiotic.

"So turn it," Nardole continued, "and then it'll..."

"I'm turning it, aren't I?"

Bill wondered if Adelaide knew about the Doctor. She knew that the woman knew Nardole, but she couldn't decide what that might mean about the woman's relationship with the Doctor.

She couldn't decide if the woman would like him. Adelaide certainly seemed like someone who would like his lectures, even if she was a biologist.

|C-S|

At Christmas, the Doctor was under the impression that he and Bill had not yet reached the point in a relationship wherein they exchanged gifts. Granted, he didn't know when that point actually was, but Adelaide had kept the one gift he'd given her for centuries, so he felt he knew something.

But Bill still turned up with a long round present and the Doctor didn't quite know what to do.

"It's a rug," he said, looking at it and then looking around the room. "Haven't got you anything."

Bill waved a hand. "It's okay, it was cheap."

|C-S|

Adelaide was used to spending holidays alone. She was barely aware of specific Earth holidays, but the schedule of school terms meant she was forced to learn them.

She spent the Christmas season that year alone in her TARDIS, trying not to think of her centuries on Christmas. It was surprisingly easy.

She was extremely good at running away, after all. A master at it, many would say.

"The phone in your office is ringing," the interface, appearing slightly behind Adelaide. "Would you like me to reroute it through the console?"

"Who is it?"

"Bill Potts."

Adelaide frowned. "How did she find my number?"

"Your office number is available for public access. Would you like me to reroute it?"

"Yes." She stood, the wall nearest to her shimmering to form a phone. "And reroute all future calls to my office to my cellphone, please." She answered. "Hello?" she and Bill had been, seemingly randomly, running into each other around the university that term. "This is Adelaide Noble."

"Hi!" Bill said. "Happy Christmas!"

"Yes, happy Christmas." Adelaide turned, watching the interface shimmer out of sight again. "Why have you called?"

"Are you busy?"

"No."

"Do you have anything planned for the rest of today?"

"Why do you ask?"

"It's just...I've found someone that I think you'd quite like to meet."

She raised her eyebrows. "Really, Bill?"

"What?"

"Thank you for thinking of this, but I am not interested."

She could practically hear Bill's small smile. "Are you sure? I think you'd quite like him."

"No, thank you. I'll see you next term." Bill had decided to try one of Adelaide's classes. "Enjoy your Christmas."

"See you then!" Bill hung up.

Adelaide had to take a breath. That woman really would have been a companion. Interference took many forms.

|C-S|

The Doctor didn't know how he'd ended up wearing a Christmas Cracker paper hat, but somehow he was sitting opposite Bill with a hat and some food on the desk between them.

"Going anywhere for Christmas?"

He shook his head quickly. "I never go anywhere."

Bill frowned. "That's not true. You go places, I can tell. My mum always said, 'with some people you can smell the wind in their clothes.'"

"Oh. She sounds nice."

"She died when I was a baby."

He nodded. "Oh."

"Yeah."

He frowned. "If she died when you were a baby, when did she say that?"

"In my head." Bill shrugged. "I'm supposed to look like her, but I don't really know. There's hardly any photographs. She hated having her picture taken. But if someone's gone, do pictures really help?"

The Doctor looked down at the two photographs he had on his desk. There was a third, technically, but he kept that one faced down.

Even in photographic form, Adelaide's gaze had an impact. Sometimes he liked it. Sometimes it kept him from doing something particularly rude or particularly stupid.

And sometimes it just reminded him of how terribly he'd messed up.

Now, he was glad he didn't have to look at Adelaide. She probably wouldn't have approved of the idea he'd just had.

But no matter what Adelaide would have thought or the ripples it might cause, the Doctor was going to be kind.

He was a madman with a box he wasn't allowed to use. If he was going to dare to touch it, the least he could do was directly help somebody.

That made it alright, right?

**A/N: They just can't seem to run into each other, now can they ;)**

**Welcome to the eighth part of this series! The Doctor and Adelaide are in a quite precarious place, but thankfully Bill's around to keep dragging them together.**

**As a refresher, I picture Adelaide's current regeneration (her 6th) to resemble Julianne Moore. She tends to favor dark pants, dark green/black shirts, and a longer leather-style coat. Her sonic is in the shape of a pen. Her Polyvore set (and those of all her regenerations) is viewable on my Tumblr, if you're curious.**

**Hope you enjoy! **


	2. Mentor

**Mentor**

When the Doctor heard of the girl with a star in her eye, he felt many things at once.

The main thing he felt, the one thing that he acted upon, was curiosity.

And desperation. He needed a mystery.

So he ran. Bill ran after him, but he didn't need her to find the puddle.

Bill finally found him while he was staring at the puddle. There were bubbles on the surface and there was something wrong with his face.

"Why do you run like that?" Bill asked, leaning as she took some deep breaths.

He frowned. "Like what?"

"Like a penguin with its arse on fire."

"That's rude," he mumbled. "And ergonomics." He pointed at the reflection in the puddle. "That's my face, yeah?"

Bill eyed him nervously. She seemed to think he'd had a psychotic break. "You seem a bit flexible on the subject."

"Oh, you've no idea."

"Maybe it's got to do with that thing in her eye."

"How?"

Bill shrugged. "Maybe she's like, affected by something."

"By what?"

"I don't know." She put her hands on her hips. "Look, I know you know lots of stuff about, well, basically everything, but do you know any sci-fi?"

The Doctor straightened and eyed her carefully. "Go on."

"Well, what if she's possessed. Something like that."

He raised his eyebrows. "Possessed by what?"

"I don't know. I saw this thing on Netflix. Lizards in people's brains."

The Doctor was forced silent for a few seconds. He wished he could have seen Adelaide's face at that suggestion. The Time Lady may have lost much of her belief in humanity. "Right. So, you meet a girl with a discolored iris and your first thought is she might have a lizard in her brain?" He shook his head. "I can see I'm going to have to up my game." His gaze fell on the water again and he felt like hitting himself. "Oh..."

"What?"

"Oh!" Adelaide would have noticed it immediately, she always noticed everything. Why couldn't he have absorbed some of that from her? Any of it? It was so obvious now!

"What is it, what?"

"Oh, I get it. I see it. It was easy for your friend because of her eye."

"What, because it gives her special powers?"

He shook his head. "No! Because her face isn't symmetrical. Look!" He gestured at the puddle, making Bill join him. "Look into the puddle. Your face looks wrong because it looks right. What's the one thing you never see when you look at a reflection? Your face. You never see your face the right way round." Bill's eyes widened. "Right. Look for a freckle or a funny tooth. Something that's not symmetrical."

Bill touched the front of her jacket. "My badge!"

He nodded. "See, your friend saw it straight away because of her eye."

Bill moved, watching the image follow her exactly. "But, it's moving like a reflection."

"It's not reflecting you. It's mimicking you. There's something in the water pretending to be you." He reached into his pocket and found a test tube, scooping up some of the liquid and corking it. He felt like Adelaide. A true scientist. "Of course, it isn't water." He moved to the side, where there were marks on the ground. "Now what are these? Let's have a look."

"What are they?"

He ran a finger along them and knew that Adelaide would critique touching it without protection, despite how much the woman wanted to. "Scorch marks. Interesting." He straightened and turned back to Bill. "Right, you. Let's get you on the bus."

"The what? The bus?"

He nodded. "Tutorial's over, take the night off. It's all canceled. Go and be a proper student. Texts, snogging, a vegan wrap."

Bill frowned. "But what about the puddle?"

He waved a hand. Adelaide hated lying. Sometimes it was necessary. "Oh, it's just some freak optical effect. I'm bored already."

He loved a mystery.

And he missed Adelaide.

|C-S|

It was late, but since Adelaide didn't have an actual separate house she lived in, she spent all of her time at the university. And since she was a Time Lady, that meant that she needed to find ways to spend most of her nights, as even she couldn't stand to be inside her TARDIS every night.

She had some patience, but even Adelaide had her limits. Granted, they took a lot longer to reach than any of the Doctor's, but they were there.

That night, she'd decided to go on a walk. It was nice to walk around St Luke's at night. The campus was particularly nice when it was empty.

Thus, when she saw someone she recognized, it was particularly surprising. "Bill?" she called, making the woman spin. "What are you doing here?"

Before Bill could speak, her attention turned to something over Adelaide's shoulder. Adelaide turned to see and found a young woman drenched in water and staring at Bill.

This was not good.

"Hello," Bill said, speaking carefully. Adelaide began to move back to stand closer to Bill.

"Hello," the woman repeated. Adelaide recognized her. She'd never been in Adelaide's class, but Adelaide had seen her with Bill around campus. There'd been a news report that she'd gone missing. Recently presumed dead.

"You scared us."

"You scared us."

Adelaide reached Bill's side. "You're dead," Bill said.

"You're dead."

Adelaide grabbed Bill's arm and pulled. She may have never had a companion of her own officially, but she knew the Doctor's. "Run!" She didn't know exactly where they were going, but she knew it needed to be away from the drenched woman.

Bill knew where they needed to go. Almost immediately, the woman ended up in the front, guiding Adelaide through the university while the drenched woman followed them. Once they'd reached an office, Bill shoved Adelaide in first, turning to jam a chair under the door handle behind them.

Adelaide would have mentioned the likelihood of how ineffectual such an action would do if she hadn't met the eyes of a man she'd hoped she'd never see again.

The Doctor had turned at the sound of his door opening, gaze landing on Bill first. "Hello, Bi..." but then his voice faded.

Adelaide searched for the stars shifting or brightening or singing, some sign of the fixed event, but there was nothing.

Time had just stopped. He was just there.

And Adelaide felt so relieved.

So happy.

"By the way, Doctor," Bill said, forcing both Time Lords to pay attention to her and the situation at hand and not to the fact that they had just seen each other for the first time in centuries and the last time they'd spoken Adelaide had walked away from him because they'd both gone too far and they'd needed to stop. "It's not a freak optical effect."

Bill had no idea about what had happened. Her panic at the situation was clear, but she had no idea that these two people knew each other at all.

The liquid had seeped under the door and begun to reform. "And it's following me."

Adelaide saw the Doctor's TARDIS in the corner of the room and grabbed Bill's arm. "Come on." She pulled her to the box and the Doctor realized what was happening and opened the door. "Let's go in here now."

"The box?" Bill asked, frowning. "What good is getting in the box going to do?"

Adelaide didn't answer. The Doctor, meanwhile, mumbled something to himself, but Adelaide was attempting to both focus and not focus on the sound of his voice so close to her, so she didn't actually understand what he said.

When the Doctor closed the door, Bill ended up between them. It wasn't clear if they intended that or not. Even in the dark, the shock of seeing the Doctor overwhelmed everything else. "How do we stop it getting in?" Bill asked them. "We're trapped in here!"

"Nobody gets through these doors," the words came quiet. The Doctor didn't seem to process them as he spoke.

Bill seemed to be thinking that the Time Lords had lost their minds. There was no way she could understand what was happening. "But they're made of wood. They've got windows!" Bill turned away to look more out the door, the Doctor moved back up the ramp to the console, finally looking away from Adelaide. She made herself keep walking, stopping halfway up the ramp. "Look, this is all mad, I know, but that's the girl I told you about. Heather. Only I don't think it's really her. I know this is hard to believe. I know you're not exactly a sci-fi person..." Bill finally turned, eyes wide.

The Doctor barely smiled. Reflexive. Both at the joy of showing his TARDIS to someone and at seeing Adelaide again. "Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. TARDIS for short." He moved around the console. "You're safe in here. You're safe in here and you always will be." His gaze went to Adelaide again. "Any questions?"

"Is this a knock-through?"

The question shocked him into blinking, paying attention to the human again. "Well, in a way, yes."

"Look at this place." Bill moved towards the console. Adelaide stepped out of the way. "It's like a..."

"Spaceship," Adelaide provided.

"Kitchen."

Again, both Time Lords blinked. "A what?"

"A really posh kitchen, all-metal. What happened with the doors, though? Did you run out of money?"

"What you are standing in is a technological marvel. It is science beyond magic. This is the gateway to everything that ever was, or ever can be."

There was a pause, the Time Lords forcing themselves to look at Bill and not each other. "Can I use the toilet?"

"Pardon?"

"I've had a fright. I need the toilet."

The Doctor nodded to the side. "It's down there, first right, second left, past the macaroon dispenser."

"Thanks." Bill started that way, running almost immediately into Nardole.

Of course.

"Oh, human! Human alert. Do you want me to repel her?" he turned, spotting Adelaide, and his eyes widened. "Adelaide!"

"Yes, hello Nardole." She nodded at Bill. "She wants to use the toilet."

Nardole made a face. "Oh. I'd...er...give it a minute if I were you."

There was a boom and the TARDIS shook. The moment it was still enough to move Adelaide went to the console for something stronger to hold onto. It had been a surprisingly long time since she'd been in the Doctor's TARDIS. She still remembered it.

Once, Adelaide had needed to learn how to pilot his TARDIS. Once, she hadn't thought it possible that she would be natural at it.

Now, she knew she would never forget it.

"Ooo, what was that?" Nardole asked.

"We have an incursion on campus. Extra-terrestrial. We're under attack." He pulled up the image of the drenched woman on the screen and looked up to Adelaide's gaze. Held it. Asked in silence.

"We have to leave."

The Time Lords worked together to pilot the TARDIS away. The Doctor picked the location, but they'd had enough practice with one piloting to a mystery location chosen by the other that there was no problem. Bill looked terrified. "Oh, my God! This isn't just a room, is it?"

"No, it's not just a room."

"This is a lift!"

The TARDIS shuttered to a stop. "Not quite," Adelaide said. The shock at finding the Doctor had begun to fade to something stranger. The relief was souring.

After all, there had been a reason she'd walked away.

Nardole, to his credit, clearly recognized the tension. Not to his credit, he didn't know how to help decrease it. "Well, come on, then." He led the way out of the TARDIS.

Adelaide was the last one out. She was not surprised to see that they'd landed outside a vault door. "I presume this is the something you've been protecting, Nardole." The humanoid nodded.

The Doctor hurried to check the control panel by the large vault door. "No interference here, as far as I can see. The vault's secure."

Bill turned to look the TARDIS up and down. "So your box can move? It can go anywhere it likes?"

"Yes," Adelaide told her. It felt so normal. So remarkably nice. "That is how it works. And..."

"Anywhere at all, in the whole university?"

The Doctor scanned the vault door with his sonic. "Is it my imagination, or is this taking longer than normal?" he mumbled.

"Manners," came on reflex for Adelaide.

Bill stepped back inside the TARDIS. "Hang on. The room's still inside the box. This isn't a knock-through."

"No, it is not," Adelaide continued.

"It's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside!"

She nodded. "Yes, it is." Behind them, the two men shook hands.

"How is that possible? How do you do that?"

"Imagine a large box fit inside a small box." Bill nodded. "That is a TARDIS."

Bill frowned. "Is that the best explanation you have?"

"She's a biologist, not a time-scientist," the Doctor commented. "But can we all shut up, please? I need to know if there's any interest in what's inside this vault."

Adelaide turned to face him, even if he wasn't looking at her. "What's inside of it?"

"Something I don't want anyone being too curious about."

Bill glanced at Adelaide. "So you put it in the middle of a university?"

Nardole nodded. "Ooo, valid point. Yeah, nice."

"Furthering that," Adelaide continued, "why in a populated location at all? I allow that Nardole may be idiotic enough to leave a mysterious vault here, but you, Doctor?" The thought flowed without Adelaide truly registering what the words meant. She supposed a large part of that had to do with her shock.

"Wait, you two know each other?" Bill asked, looking between the Doctor and Adelaide at the same time the Doctor mumbled, "don't correct her on her manners."

"Yes," Adelaide told Bill. "We do." She looked at the Doctor again. His back was still to her. "Did that liquid creature possessing the dead human come here for this vault, or is this a coincidence?"

"It's just a coincidence."

"Never ignore a coincidence," the Doctor mumbled. He seemed to be doing a lot of mumbling. "We can't know that for sure."

Bill shook her head. "Yeah, we can. It was here for ages before it did anything. If it had work to do, why would it lie around in a puddle?"

"It was a puddle?"

Bill nodded. "The girl, Heather, kept looking at it. Doc here noticed that it didn't reflect, it mimicked."

Adelaide nodded. "It was waiting for something. Someone."

Nardole grinned, laughing. "Oh, banter, theories. It's good, this." He gestured between the Time Lords, finishing on the Doctor. "Your go again."

Instead, the Time Lord's attention was focused on the steps to the side of the cellar, watching the liquid pouring down it. "Nardole, we need to move away from the doors and towards the TARDIS." Liquid gathered at the bottom of the steps into a puddle, the girl forming out of it again.

"What if it attacks us?" Nardole asked, moving back with the Doctor, though the Time Lord was slower.

Adelaide grabbed the Doctor's arm to force him to join them. "That would mean it is not interested in what's in the vault."

"It would just want to kill us," the Doctor agreed.

"Oh."

"Run!"

They ran back into the TARDIS as the drenched woman screamed.

"It's not interested in the vault, it's chasing us," the Doctor said, stopping on the other side of the console as Adelaide. "Let's give it a proper challenge. Let's see how far she's prepared to go." Adelaide nodded.

"But what about my friend?" Bill asked. "What about Heather? Can you save her?"

The TARDIS stopped again. "First things first." The Doctor moved to the doors. "Let's see if we can survive her." He looked ready to take Adelaide's hand, turning back to look for it. It was so easy to fall back into how they'd acted before. Too easy.

It almost felt like forgetting.

She still followed him out, the second one out of the box and into the bright sunshine.

Bill stumbled out less gracefully. "But..."

The Doctor spread his arms to the city they could see. "Yes."

"We've moved again."

Adelaide nodded. "Yes, Bill, we have."

"It was night."

"Yep."

"Now it's day."

Adelaide glanced at the sky. "Yes, it's day."

Bill's eyes widened. "Oh, my God! Have we traveled in time?"

The Doctor laughed. "No, of course not. We've traveled to Australia." He stepped to the side, showing the human the visible Sydney Opera House opposite them.

"Shall we go inside?" Adelaide nodded at the café they'd landed outside of. "I think Bill may need some water." She frowned. "Well, perhaps not water specifically." Adelaide started walking, gesturing for Bill to follow. She held the door open to the bathroom for the human, letting the woman rush inside. "Are you alright?" she asked Bill as the woman splashed her face with water.

"How do you think?"

Adelaide nodded. "I can answer any questions you have."

Bill turned, leaning back against the counter. "Can I ask you a personal question?"

"In this situation, yes."

"You two know each other?"

"We used to travel together. There were disagreements. We separated. Specific details can be given at a later time if you would like them."

Bill nodded. "Are you two from space?"

"Technically, yes, though we're from a planet, like the majority of the universe."

"This planet?"

"No, not specifically this one."

Bill frowned. "Doesn't make sense, then."

"What doesn't?"

"TARDIS. If you're from another planet, why would you name your box in English? Those initials wouldn't work in any other language!"

Adelaide shrugged. "We translate."

"It looks like a phone box."

"The Doctor's cloaking device is broken."

"Why did it ever hide as a box with 'pull to enter' on the front?"

She shrugged again. "He landed in a junkyard on Earth in the 1960s, and, apparently, it 'just broke'. As if he had nothing to do with it." Bill laughed, but they both looked down when the sink gurgled. "Out!" Adelaide backed up as the liquid began to appear around the mirror.

Since she was walking backward, she ran directly into the Doctor. The Time Lord had been standing a step away from the door, keeping guard. Immediately, he grabbed her shoulders, spinning her further away from the door. Their faces were so close. Their gazes held.

"We need to go," she managed to say, using the rest of the momentum to pull the Doctor further. "Out!"

"Everybody out!" the Doctor picked up the order, shouting to the humans that surrounded them. "Shark attack!"

As the drenched woman formed out of the bathroom, the humans screamed, running.

The Time Lords led the way to the TARDIS, separating only once they'd reached the console. Bill and Nardole were a few steps behind, catching themselves on the console as the ship took off.

"Where are we going?" Bill asked.

"As far as we can." The Doctor moved behind Adelaide as he spoke, going for a specific bit of the console. "She made Australia in a minute. Let's see what she can really do." He caught Adelaide's gaze. "An experiment."

"Sir," Nardole called, "we're leaving Earth. What about the vault?"

The Time Lord waved a hand. "Oh, we're fine. If there's any trouble, I'll get a message on this." He pulled his psychic paper out of his jacket, waving at the humanoid. "Let's see how long it takes her to get here."

The TARDIS landed. "Where are we?"

Adelaide slid a screen towards her. "Other end of the universe. Twenty-three million years in the future." Bill's eyes widened and Adelaide blinked. "Ah, yes, I should have mentioned that this is also a time machine." She frowned. "Though, I would have hoped you had understood that from the acronym."

The planet they'd landed on was, thankfully, breathable for the human. It resembled a large Earth quarry. Bill stumbled outside, turning to see everything around her. "So this is somewhere else? This is a different planet? Not Earth, a different one?"

The Doctor nodded. "That's the general idea."

Bill pointed up. "That's different sky? Is it made of something different? What is sky made of?"

"Lemon drops."

"Really?"

He shrugged. "No, but wouldn't that be nice?"

Nardole frowned at the Time Lord. "You can be very silly sometimes, you know that?"

"He's well aware of that fact," Adelaide told him.

Nardole put his hands on his hips. "So how do we know this water thing is actually dangerous?"

"It's not water," Adelaide corrected.

"And it's because most things are," the Doctor crouched, examining a rock.

"Mmm, that's true."

Bill looked between the Time Lords. "Why? Is everything out here evil?"

"Very few things are evil," Adelaide said. "Almost nothing. But all things are hungry."

The Doctor nodded. "Hunger looks very like evil from the wrong end of the cutlery. Or do you think that your bacon sandwich loves you back?"

"So what is it, and what was it doing on Earth?"

Adelaide turned to the Doctor. "Yes, explain what you know."

"Well, there were scorch marks on the concrete where we found it."

"Shuttlecraft."

He nodded and pointed Bill. "The puddle, what did it look like? I mean, if that was a car, what would you say that was?"

"An oil leak? So it's space engine oil?"

"Intelligent oil. Super intelligent space oil." His eyes widened. "No, part of the ship itself."

"Shape-shifting fluid that becomes anything it needs to be." The Doctor looked at her again. "It's a theory based on the evidence. I hope you haven't already forgotten that."

Bill frowned. "Seriously?"

"But it spent ages lying around being a puddle," the Doctor ignored the human. "What changed?"

"Bill's friend. I presume she looked into it? More than once?" Bill nodded. "Perhaps it saw what it needed in her."

The Doctor pointed at Bill. "What was she like, your friend? What did she want? What did she need?"

"I think she wanted to leave."

Adelaide nodded. She felt she would have liked Heather if they'd ever met.

"The puddle found a passenger."

"A left-behind droplet of a liquid spaceship. A single teardrop, alone in a strange world." The Doctor, waxing poetic as he tended to, looked at Adelaide again. "Then, one day, it finds someone who wants to fly away."

"Not a passenger," Adelaide corrected. "More than a passenger. Like Craig's flat."

"It found a pilot, so it ate her."

Nardole gestured towards Bill. "So why is it chasing this one?"

"Everything wants, everything needs."

"But why does it want her?"

The Doctor threw up his hands. "I don't know. I don't know everything, Nardole. I don't have it all written down."

"You act like you do."

"He acts like that because he doesn't," Adelaide said, crossing her arms. "It's easier than acknowledging he doesn't know something."

"Says the woman afraid of not knowing something."

"It's not fear, it's dislike."

"Dislike is based on fear."

Nardole looked nervous. "Can we get back to the problem at hand? It must be looking for something."

"Of course it is, everything is."

"But what?"

"What, in the end, are any of us looking for? We're looking for someone who's looking for us."

The moment was rather ruined by the combination of Heather and Bill's scream. The liquid woman had appeared in a puddle on the planet and grabbed Bill's face, pulling the human down with her.

The Doctor and Nardole rushed forward, grabbing Bill to try and pull her back. "Bill! Bill! Quick!" They managed to pull Bill free. "Back to the TARDIS!" they ran as a geyser erupted from the puddle, still screaming. "Okay, it's fast." The Doctor closed the TARDIS door. "It time travels. It never gives up." He ran up to the console. "Plan! Basic sterilization. We're going to run that thing through the deadliest fire in the universe."

Nardole looked terrified. "Yes, that sounds excellent. The deadliest fire in the universe. That's definitely good."

"How do we do that?"

"The only way we can. We run through it first."

If anything, Nardole looked worse. "Less good now." The TARDIS shook and Nardole looked at the screen. "No, not there. I don't like it there!"

"I also dislike it," Adelaide said, watching her own scanner.

The Doctor threw his sonic to Nardole, who still managed to catch it. "I want you running interference. Can you do that?"

"Can I say no, sir?"

"No."

"Yes, then."

"Thank you."

"But no really."

Bill looked to Adelaide. "Where are we?"

"We're in the middle of a war." Adelaide stepped away from the console. "This is a war zone."

The Doctor waved a hand. "It's just your basic skirmish. It's not as bad as it sounds, I promise you." He looked at Adelaide. "It won't make you a soldier. You'll be a civilian scientist running through a war zone. Not actually participating." He stepped back. "Come on, we've got friends here, old friends."

Adelaide didn't know quite why she followed him. She felt it had something to do with knowing exactly what the sentient puddle was.

It annoyed her.

They'd landed in the corridor of a space station. Already, an alien – a very specific one, which Adelaide had not seen in quite some time – had spotted them.

"I say friends," the Doctor shrugged.

"The Doctor and the Protector are detected. Seek. Locate. Destroy."

The Time Lords didn't give anyone a chance to truly consider the situation. The Doctor grabbed Adelaide's hand to force her to move and she didn't stop him. They just ran through the explosions. Nardole went in a different direction.

"Are we still in the future?" Bill asked.

"No, this is the past."

Bill ducked. "Doesn't...doesn't look like the past. Are we safe here?"

"That's up to Nardole, apparently."

The Doctor shrugged. "So probably not."

"Where are we going?"

The Doctor looked back at Adelaide. "Into the fire. Come on."

They heard shouts and screams and it was Adelaide's turn to pull the Doctor to hide around a corner as another creature crossed the corridor in front of them. Bill came to her either side. "Who are those guys?"

The Doctor waved a hand. "Never mind them, it's who they're firing at." There was another large explosion, almost to the point the Doctor was spinning to guard Adelaide against any potential shrapnel. "Come on."

They began moving again, turning around another corner until they found themselves staring directly at a Dalek.

"What's that?"

"The deadliest fire in the universe."

"Identify," the Dalek said. "Intruder. Identify."

Adelaide held out her sonic, knowing that, by now, the Daleks would also have her device on record in connection with one man they particularly disliked. "Scan."

"You are the protector of the Predator. You are an enemy of the Daleks!"

The Doctor grinned and Adelaide almost wanted to slap him. "Oh, yes, she is!"

"Exterminate!"

When the Dalek fired, the Time Lords pulled Bill to the side. Instead of hitting the human, the blast went straight through the drenched Heather who had formed behind them.

"Exterminate," the drenched woman repeated.

"Exterminate!"

"Exterminate."

"What was that thing?" Bill asked again.

"A Dalek."

"A what?"

"A Dalek."

"What's a Dalek?"

"Never mind. It's a Dalek."

Adelaide glanced back at the corridor they'd ducked away from. "Time to run."

"Exterminate!"

The blast hit the corridor and lit it on fire, forcing them to stop and turn.

Instead of firing again, the Dalek slowed. "Exterminate."

The Doctor frowned. "That's wrong. I know my Daleks, and that's wrong." He leaned down, staring at the eyestalk. "Oh, I see."

"You see what?"

Nardole jogged up on their other side, breathing hard. "I've sealed the area. All the Daleks are quarantined. Except that one."

The Doctor stepped to the side to let Adelaide look. "It's okay. This isn't a Dalek. Look. Look at the eye."

Adelaide traded with Bill. "Heather."

Liquid poured out of the Dalek body, emerging from places even a drowned Dalek wouldn't have liquid pouring out of. It dissolved immediately after, reforming into Heather's body.

Even possessed by sentient oil – perhaps because she was possessed by sentient oil – Adelaide recognized herself in this figure that had once been Heather.

"Heather," she repeated.

The Doctor moved around the woman that had once been Heather, forcing her to turn away from directly engaging with Bill. "Interesting. You had a gun but you didn't use it. Why? You've already taken one person from the Earth. I'm going to let that pass because I have to, but I will not let you take another." He stopped behind Heather, holding Adelaide's gaze. "Go. Just go now. Fly away. Why won't you just go?"

Heather turned back to look at Bill and the human blinked. "Oh, my God. I understand."

Nardole frowned at her. "You what?"

"The last thing she said to me. She promised she wouldn't leave without me."

Adelaide nodded. "Her last conscious thought, pulling her across the universe."

The Doctor was still holding Adelaide's gaze. "Never underestimate a crush."

Nardole scoffed. "Oh, you don't have to tell me."

"What do we do?"

"I don't know," the Doctor said, at the same time that Adelaide said, "release her."

Bill picked Adelaide to look at for an explanation. "She's not chasing you, she's inviting you. Release her from her promise."

Bill nodded and looked at Heather again. "You have to let me go."

"You have to let me go."

"I will."

"I will."

Bill looked near tears. "I really like you."

"I really liked you." Heather reached out to Bill and Bill moved to match her, but Adelaide's hand shot out, grabbing the human's shoulder.

"Bill..."

But they clasped hands anyway and Bill's eyes glazed over. Immediately, the Doctor began begging. "Bill, listen to me. Whatever she's showing you, whatever she's letting you see, it's a lure, it's a trap. She's making you part of her, and you can never come back." Bill wasn't moving. "Bill, let go! You have to let go! She is not human anymore."

And, thankfully, Bill's eyes refocused. "Goodbye, Heather."

"Goodbye, Bill."

Bill released Heather and let Adelaide pull her further back as the sentient oil dissolved into a puddle again.

The Doctor was still standing where he could face Bill. "Bill!" He rushed forward. "You all right?"

Bill nodded, blinking. "Yeah, I think so."

The Doctor nodded and moved past them, leaving only Adelaide and Nardole to study Bill's face. Past characterizations would not have placed Adelaide as the one who recognized emotions, but she supposed empathy was polite.

But Adelaide was still Adelaide and when Nardole caught her eye, the humanoid gestured for her to follow the Doctor. "Until you're ready."

The Doctor was waiting outside of the TARDIS, leaning against it. "Hello, Adelaide."

"Hello."

"I gather you still hate me."

"I never hated you." She crossed her arms. There was quite a space between them.

"Your comments hint to otherwise."

"Likewise." They didn't smile. "What's in the vault, Doctor?"

He frowned. "That's the first thing you want to ask me? After years? Centuries?"

"There's time enough for discussing the years and centuries if we would like to. I allowed Nardole to keep his secrets about what is hidden at that school, but I will not do the same to you."

He was quiet. "I will show you. After we bring Bill home."

Adelaide nodded. "Thank you." They could hear Nardole talking to Bill. The humanoid seemed to be describing different functions on a control panel. "No more secrets."

"If you promise the same." His gaze flickered up back in the direction of Bill. "Is she the only reason you're talking of time enough and plans for the future?"

"Not the only reason, but we would not be the first pair brought together again over a mutual concern for and interest in someone else."

"This wasn't a fixed event."

She shrugged. "It counts." After a second, she turned slightly. "Nardole, we're done." She turned back to the Doctor. "For now."

|C-S|

The moment they'd returned to Earth, the Doctor had to go to the vault when the alarm went off. He didn't let Adelaide come that time, just in case something had actually gone wrong so that she would be with Bill and the majority of the humans to help keep them safe.

Bill took a seat while they waited. Adelaide moved around the Doctor's office, studying the various books and other collected items he had scattered about. She paused at his desk, seeing a picture – alongside River Song and his granddaughter – face down, and tilted it up.

She didn't know where the Doctor had gotten a picture of her. It almost felt like a betrayal of the TARDIS.

"The Doctor is a professor here, then." she asked Bill, who still looked dazed.

Bill nodded. "He's been here forever. Lecturing about everything." Bill blinked. "He's my tutor."

"Of course he is."

The TARDIS reappeared and the Doctor emerged. "The vault alarm went off, but it was nothing. A student was sick outside and it registered as a biological attack."

Adelaide raised her eyebrows but said nothing.

"I saw it all for a moment," Bill said, her voice quiet. "Everything out there. She was going to let me fly with her. She was inviting me. I was too scared."

"Scared is good." The Doctor watched Adelaide as she moved up to his upper level of the office. "Scared is rational. She wasn't human anymore."

"Will we see her again?"

"I don't see how." Bill looked to the side, stopping on the TARDIS. "No, no, no, no." The Doctor rushed to block her view. "No, no. You have to forget about that."

Bill shook her head. "I don't see how I can."

Adelaide turned to watch this. She knew what was about to happen. She hated it. "Doctor..."

He wasn't listening. "Come here, Bill."

Bill stood, moving to stand in front of him. "What's up?"

"I just need to fix something." He reached for her head.

"Doctor, stop," Adelaide said, at the same time that Bill took a step back. "You need to stop."

"Don't worry. This won't hurt at all."

Bill turned, looking at Adelaide. "Adelaide, tell me what's happening."

"Nothing," the Doctor tried, but Bill didn't listen.

"Because I think he's going to wipe my memory." Adelaide nodded. "I'm not stupid, you know." Bill turned back to the Doctor. "That's the trouble with you. You don't think anyone's ever seen a movie. I know what a mind-wipe looks like!"

"I have no choice. I'm here for a reason. I am in disguise. I have promises to keep. No one can know about me."

Bill shook her head. "This is the most exciting thing that's ever happened to me in my life. The only exciting thing!"

"I'm sorry."

Bill was near tears. "Okay, let me remember for just a week. Just a week. Okay, well, just for tonight. Just one night. Come on, let me have some good dreams for once." The Doctor was silent. "Okay. Do what you've got to do. But imagine, just imagine how it would feel if someone did this to you."

Adelaide was gripping the railing of the upper level. If he dared to try, if he dared to make that choice for someone...

"Get out."

Bill blinked. "What?"

"You can keep your memories. Now get out before I change my mind! Don't speak, don't start, just run! Now. Go!"

Bill didn't question it.

The Doctor turned, looking down at the pictures on his desk. "Shut up. You shut up as well." He looked up at Adelaide. "I can't do it anymore. I promised."

"You really have changed, if you're upholding promises."

"You're the one who promised not to die."

"I seem to have upheld that promise." She moved to the staircase. "What promises have you upheld?"

"Love is a promise."

"So it is." She started down the stairs. "You want to travel with Bill, don't you?"

He almost smiled. "Is it that obvious?"

Adelaide shrugged. "I've learned how to spot your companions. I knew the moment I met her." She'd reached the bottom of the stairs. "How did we manage to avoid each other on one Earth university?"

"We managed it at the Academy."

"Nardole knew."

They were so close again. "He must have worked to keep us apart." He was quiet. "Do you want to travel with us?"

"We will have to establish boundaries first."

"Even for you?"

"I'm not too self-aggrandizing to think I've done no wrong." Adelaide wanted to take his hand again. It took a surprising amount of effort to stop herself from doing so. "If this is going to have any chance of working, we need boundaries and communication."

He caught her gaze flickering to the TARDIS. "How long has it been since you've traveled?"

"Less time than you." He grinned. "What about the vault and your promise?"

He shrugged. "We can leave Nardole. And since when are you critiquing someone about running away?"

"I never said I was critiquing you." Adelaide let herself smile too. "A quick trip and then you will show me what is in the vault."

He put a hand on each of his two hearts. "I promise."

"As do I."

And Adelaide, despite her hatred and anger, felt happy.

|C-S|

Together, the Time Lords brought the Doctor's TARDIS – Adelaide would show him her own once they'd returned – just outside where Bill was hurrying. The Doctor stepped outside and Adelaide stood in the doorway, keeping it open.

"It's a big universe, but maybe one day we'll find her," the Doctor called to Bill, making the human spin.

Bill grinned. "What changed your mind?"

"Time."

"Time?"

"And Relative Dimensions In Space," Adelaide finished.

The Doctor grinned. "It means, what the hell?"

**A/N: The Doctor and Adelaide are finally back together! Still have quite a bit to talk about, but at least they're talking again!**


	3. Steering

**Steering**

It was surprisingly easy for the Time Lords to return to their opposing positions around the Doctor's TARDIS console. They'd nearly gotten there as they'd piloted away from Heather, but it hadn't been quite right.

Now, though, it was settled. Proper.

Bill stood between them like companions always did, eyeing them. The woman had no idea how much each Time Lord meant to the other. How much they'd been through. How hard this was. "So?"

The Doctor nodded. "So."

"What do we do?" Bill looked around the console. "Do I have to sit somewhere? Are there seat belts?"

Adelaide frowned at her. "You've done this before. This isn't your first trip."

"Yeah, but it's proper this time." Bill moved around the console, locating a chair to the side. She sat and immediately frowned. "Oh, that's a mistake."

"What is?"

"You can't reach the controls from the seats. What's the point in that? Or do you have stretchy arms, like Mister Fantastic?"

"Oh, I stand, like this," the Doctor demonstrated. Adelaide felt like laughing.

"You never thought of bringing the seats a bit closer?"

The Doctor blinked. "No, not so far, no."

"Technically, the Doctor's TARDIS is meant to require six pilots. There's only one chair. It's meant for passengers."

Bill looked at Adelaide. "Really?"

Adelaide shrugged. "A theory only. I'm not actually an expert on the Doctor's TARDIS."

"She's an expert on most things," the Doctor added. "Ask her about anything and she'd know. History, math, philosophy. Especially biology. But not TARDISes. She's rubbish at them."

"I'm not rubbish."

"I thought you weren't self-aggrandizing."

The Time Lords held each other's gaze.

Bill waited a few seconds to speak again. "Where's the steering wheel?"

"You don't steer the Doctor's TARDIS, you negotiate with it," Adelaide said.

The Doctor nodded. "The still point between where you want to go and where you need to be, that's where she takes you."

"If you'd like, Bill, I'll show you my TARDIS another time. You'll be able to see a properly functioning ship."

Bill's eyes widened. "You have a TARDIS? How much do they cost?"

"I was given mine. He stole his."

"Seriously?"

The Doctor nodded. "Yep."

"Why?"

"Well, actually, because I felt like it."

"What if I steal it from you?"

"Well, that'd be rude." The Doctor grinned. "But on you go."

Bill stood, examining the console. "I don't know how it works."

He shrugged. "Well, neither did I."

There was a knock on the TARDIS door. Adelaide and the Doctor exchanged a look. "Who's that?" Bill asked.

Another knock. "Mum," the Doctor whispered. He moved to the door and opened it for Nardole, who looked quite put out. Adelaide wanted to laugh again.

"Excuse me, just what is the TARDIS doing down here?" Nardole asked.

"I'm over two thousand years old, I don't always want to take the stairs."

"Your oath, sir. You're not supposed to go off-world unless it's an emergency."

The Doctor gestured out the TARDIS door. "I'm not off-world."

Nardole looked up to Adelaide. "Are you going off-world?"

"We're going back to my office," the Doctor answered. "Can you put the kettle on, please?"

"Hmm..." Nardole studied Bill. "Why's she here?"

"Because she isn't anywhere else." The Doctor gestured out the door. "Kettle."

Nardole pouted. "Well, I'm not making any for her. She can make her own. I'm not a slave for any human, I can assure you." He looked at Adelaide again. "I'll make some for you, though."

"Thank you, Nardole." The humanoid left.

When the Time Lords looked back at Bill, the human looked sad. "So, back up to your office for a cuppa, then?"

"Between here and my office, before the kettle boils, is everything that ever happened or ever will." The Doctor grinned. "Make your choice."

"What choice?"

"Past or future."

Bill grinned. "Future."

"Why?" Adelaide asked her.

"Why do you think? I want to see if it's happy."

|C-S|

The trio emerged into something that looked like a normal wheat field surrounding a futuristic city. Bill stumbled outside, spinning as she took in the surroundings. "Which way is Earth?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Ah, space is bent. Earth is any way you choose to look. Why, you thinking about leaving?"

"Thinking? I'm not thinking. My brain's overloading." She turned, stopping to look at the Doctor. "Why a phone box?"

"I told you," Adelaide said.

"Yeah, well, I get that it's a broken cloaking device, but why keep it that shape? Why do you like it?"

He frowned. "Who said I like it?"

"You kept it."

The Doctor pouted and started to walk. "Come along."

Bill matched Adelaide's pace as the Time Lady began to move. "Grouchy pants."

"He's only getting started. You should see him in the morning."

Bill glanced at how far ahead the Doctor was. "Are you two a..."

"Now is not the time."

Bill shrugged. "You two are practically strangers to me, especially you. I only found out you had history earlier today."

"History is a small word." Adelaide eyed the Doctor's back. Even though Bill had judged the distance to be far enough, Adelaide knew the true extent of Time Lord hearing. His shoulders were tense. "We can talk about this later, Bill, after the Doctor and I have a conversation about it ourselves. All you need to know is that I left him, originally on good terms, and then on tense ones. Neither of us expected to ever see the other again."

They reached the city and the Doctor turned, gesturing at the buildings. "This is one of the Earth's first colonies." He spoke as though Adelaide had said nothing. "They say the settlers have cracked the secret of human happiness."

Bill pulled out her phone to take a picture, earning her a sigh from the Doctor. "One more question. Little fella said you made an oath. You're not supposed to leave the planet."

He looked at Adelaide. "A long time ago, a thing happened. As a result of the thing, I made a promise. As a result of the promise, I have to stay on Earth."

"Guarding a vault."

He nodded. "Guarding a vault."

"And not interfering," Adelaide added. The Doctor didn't repeat that.

"Well, you're not guarding a vault right now."

"Yes, I am. I have a time machine. I can be back before we left."

Bill shrugged. "But what if you get lost, or stuck, or something?"

The Doctor blinked. "I've thought about that."

"And?"

"Well, it would be a worry, so best not to dwell on it." The Doctor spun, gesturing at the buildings again. "Look at this building. Look at it. You know what I like about humanity? Its optimism. Do you know what this building is made of? Pure, soaring optimism."

They found their way to a walkway on an upper level of the abandoned city. The Doctor was leading and Adelaide in the back, Bill between them. Above them, there was a swarm that Adelaide kept glancing at.

"What are they? Alien birds?" Bill asked.

"Vardies," the Doctor explained. "Tiny robots. Work in flocks. They're versatile, hard-working. Good at learning skills. The worker bees of the Third Industrial Revolution, probably just checking us out for security."

Bill held a hand up to block the sun to look closer at the robots. "These are robots? These are disappointing robots."

The Doctor pointed at her. "That's a very offensive remark. Don't make offensive remarks like that. It's rude. Adelaide hates it when you're rude. And you don't want her to hate you."

"Then why doesn't she hate you?" Bill paused. "At least, not for that."

"It wasn't worth it to keep pushing the point," Adelaide said. "On his good days, he'd remember himself."

"She trained me."

"Should have trained you better," Bill smirked. "Besides, you can't offend a machine."

"You'd be surprised."

Bill winced, grabbing onto her ear. "Oh, what just happened?"

"Your ear's on fire."

Bill stepped away, shaking her head. "Ow! Your voice just came out in my ear. I mean, I know voices go into ears but this was like..."

"We've been fitted with a communication device that uses our nervous system as hardware," Adelaide explained. "We must have just downloaded an upgrade for our ears."

"I'll never lose my phone again. I'll never run out of battery again!"

The Doctor nodded. "Welcome to paradise."

"Hang on, is there a mute button though? What if you're in the loo?"

He shrugged. "Who needs loos? There's probably an app for that."

Bill moved ahead of the Doctor, peering into a room as they passed it. "So, where is everyone? Don't tell me we've come halfway across the universe and they've all gone out. We should've texted first or something." A large door at the end of their walkway slid open and Bill leaned forward, narrowing her eyes to see it better. "What's that?" The Time Lords stopped beside her. "That is a robot. That is not a disappointing robot."

Bill hurried further and the Doctor and Adelaide exchanged a look.

The door that had opened closed behind them as Bill stopped before the robot. "Technically, this isn't a robot at all," the Doctor said. "The tiny little things, those are the robots, this is the interface with them."

"Does it speak? Will we understand it?"

"That depends on which aspects of your languages survived after so many years," Adelaide said.

The interface's face switched to a large grin, which Bill matched. "Emoji. It speaks emoji!"

The Doctor groaned. "Of course it does."

Thumbs up for eyes. "Aw. It's cute." The interface held up three blank circles. "What's that?"

"Blank badges."

Each of them took one, turning them over. "Mood indicator," Adelaide identified, watching as the puzzled expression on the Doctor's remained on the side facing out, no matter how many times he turned it. "Displays your mood for other people to see."

"But you're never allowed to see your own mood."

Adelaide nodded. "Knowing your own mood has the chance to affect your own mood. It creates a feedback loop and would interfere with the data being collected."

Bill looked around the empty room. "So who's collecting the data?"

"Is the big question," the Doctor finished.

"So what do we do then?"

"Well, if they're badges then..." the Doctor attempted to place it on his lapel, but it vanished. "What? Where's...where's it gone?" He turned in a small circle, searching the ground.

Adelaide nodded at his neck. "It's on your back."

Bill placed her own and it appeared on her back. Adelaide was more apprehensive, but she did so anyway. The Doctor nodded at both of them. "Yours too."

"So, everyone you walk past can see what you're thinking. What if you really fancy someone?"

"Well, I suppose it means that you have to maintain eye contact with them." The Doctor looked to Adelaide. "Enforces communication."

"Oh, that's brilliant," Bill nodded.

The interface turned away, beginning to walk off. "Welcome to the future," Adelaide said, the trio following. Adelaide saw the Doctor taking a peek at her mood indicator.

To cover it, he pretended at distaste. "Emojis. Wearable communications. We're in the utopia of vacuous teens."

The interface brought them to another large empty space, though this one had a table with three chairs in the center. It placed down three trays, two with two blue cubes and the other with only one.

Bill rushed to it, gesturing at the plates. "Look at this. It knew I was starving! Food from another planet. You've got to, haven't you?" She sat, sniffing the plate. "Smells like fish."

The Doctor made a face. "I'm not that fond of fish, except socially, which can complicate a meal like this."

"Should we eat it, though? I mean, what if they're not like us?"

Adelaide nodded at the plates. "It's modern human cutlery and the emojis are modeled after specifically human features."

"And no other species in the universe uses emojis," the Doctor added.

Adelaide continued as though she hadn't heard him. "Everything here is human except..."

"No humans," Bill finished.

"This is a perfect colony for humans, so where are all the colonists?" The Doctor looked around. Both Time Lords kept doing that. Something didn't feel right.

Adelaide leaned down to study a blue cube. "That's some type of flavored algae. Makes sense, due to the lack of any sign of livestock."

"That's good, isn't it? In the future we don't eat living things, we eat algae."

The Doctor shrugged. "I met an emperor made of algae once. He fancied me."

Adelaide blinked. "Now, that is someone I haven't met."

Bill frowned at them. "Why aren't you loving this?"

"Everything is here, everything is ready, but there's no one here."

"It's like the Student Union first thing, before the actual students arrive. Two portions, though."

"Those two are ours," Adelaide said as the Doctor nodded.

"That's it! That's it! Of course! The whole place is waiting. We're just too early."

"So, they're all still in bed?" Bill looked back down to the plates. "Two portions. One portion. Good to see there isn't food sexism in the future. No bloke utopia."

Adelaide shrugged. "Even if it was based on sex, male human bodies tend to require more food than female human bodies. Evolution."

Bill scoffed. "Sounds like sexism."

"However, it's likely reading the Doctor and I as two people."

"Why?"

"We each have two hearts."

The Doctor continued to speak before Bill could vocalize her shock. "If you're going to travel twenty light-years, you're going to want to make sure you've got somewhere to sleep at the end of it, aren't you? So, what do you do?"

"Sorry? Two hearts?"

"You send robots ahead of you," Adelaide nodded. "They're able to build you a place to live."

"This is brilliant!"

Bill stood, pointing at the two Time Lords. "You...you...you two have got two hearts?"

"Robots, they don't breathe," the Time Lords were just looking at each other, nodding in agreement as each came up with a new idea. "They can fix the atmosphere for you, send data back, so you know whether to bring your waterproofs or not. Work in huge robot flocks. You just send them up ahead and you leave them to it."

"Yeah." Bill waved her hand. "Hearts, though. Why two?"

"Well, why one?"

"Does that mean you've got really high blood pressure?"

"Really high."

|C-S|

Though neither Time Lord actually knew how the human settlement was arranged, Adelaide was the one who found the greenhouse. The Doctor couldn't seem to decide if he was annoyed he wasn't the one who found it or proud that she managed it. Thankfully, it seemed he was settling on pride.

A proud Doctor could be difficult to deal with, but so long as it wasn't pride in himself, it was far better than annoyance.

Adelaide bent to study the dirt, running her fingers through it before pulling out her sonic to scan it. The Doctor stood over her shoulder, watching her work. He'd not even begun to bend to look, though Adelaide knew he wanted to.

He was just as curious as she was. It was why she'd loved him.

She wondered if he was studying the mood indicator on her back. Using it to get even the smallest sense of who she truly was.

"So, if the people aren't here yet, what do we do?" Bill asked as she worked. "Put the kettle on? Or are we going to leave before they arrive?" She eyed the Doctor's expression. "Is that what you're worried about? I can see you're worried."

"Well, you never know what's round the next corner."

Adelaide pulled up a small medallion and brushed away some of the dirt. The Doctor saw it. Bill didn't. "These are their crops. Orchards, olive groves...this is their nursery."

The Doctor gestured at a swarm of the robots. "Look, the little robots are doing pollination work."

"A solution to the vanishing bees."

Bill paused at an herb garden. "Oh, this plant! There's one of these growing outside the Student Union. It smells amazing."

Adelaide glanced over at it as she stood. "Rosemary."

Bill grinned. "I'm smelling home twenty light-years from home." She turned back to the Time Lords. "Thanks for bringing me. This is a great day out. I mean, come on, admit it. You love it."

"Did either of us say we didn't love it? Yes, we do. It's very lovable." He eyed Adelaide. "Bill, you asked us where all the people were, and together we theorized that they hadn't got here yet. Did we sound convincing?"

"Yeah."

"And did I convince myself?" he turned to show the human his mood indicator.

"No."

"No, no. And I'll tell you why. Because there should be somebody here. There should be some kind of set-up team, a skeleton crew."

Bill frowned at him. "You're thinking. Tell me what you're thinking about."

"A magic haddock."

Bill nearly rolled her eyes. "Obviously." There was a sound from above and Bill looked up, watching a white powder rain onto the plans. "What is this stuff? Is it snow?"

Adelaide blinked at the human. "Why would they intentionally be placing snow onto young plants? It's fertilizer. Mineral fertilizer, calcium-based. The first question is what is the source of this mineral fertilizer, but it can quickly be answered by the second question..." the Doctor moved as she spoke, sonicing open a small container in the back of the nursery, "where are all the people?" human skulls spilled out.

Bill moved back, looking horrified. "Urgh!"

"Here, right here, in this garden," the Doctor answered.

"Oh, my God."

The Doctor bent and picked up one of the skulls, studying it. His mood indicator gained a tear. Adelaide wondered if her's did. "Despite appearances, they haven't been dead very long."

"Wait, those are the colonists?"

"The colonists have yet to arrive," Adelaide said. "This is the skeleton crew."

"Why did the robots feed them to the garden?"

"I don't know." The Doctor stood. "Adelaide?"

But the Time Lady only shook her head. "There's likely an error in their programming logic. A metaphor they've interpreted literally. Or a virus corrupting. Humans, even in the future, can have difficulty understanding exactly how a computer will understand its commands, especially if they get corrupted."

"They should have applied the laws of robotics."

"Even those laws can be corrupted." With that, Adelaide turned and led the way out of the garden, though they didn't get far. An interface was waiting for them, looking tearful. "Hello," she told it. She was very thankful her interface didn't communicate in emojis. "We were admiring your garden." She smiled and made herself exude pleasure. "Quite lovely."

Bill nodded. "Yes!"

"But we're leaving it now." Adelaide kept walking. Almost a moment after they'd passed the interface, they heard the body following them.

The trio hurried in silence for some time, but the interface continued just as slowly. Bill glanced back at it. "If he's chasing us, he's moving very slowly."

"It's an interface," Adelaide mumbled, "not technically a 'he'."

"Do you know what it means when something chases you very slowly?" the Doctor said.

"What?"

"It means there's a reason that they don't have to run."

The trio reached a four-way corridor, but two interface appeared in front of them. They turned to the branches, but there were two interfaces at each. Behind them, a second interface joined the first.

"Okay, they were slow, but the city is full of them, so they catch you in the end."

"What do we do?"

Adelaide turned and studied them all. "Question. We've been here for some time. Why have they only begun attacking now?"

"Does it matter?"

"It may be key." Adelaide looked at Bill's mood indicator. "Smile."

"Smile?"

"Whole face, smile, now."

Bill grinned. "What good's smiling?" Her mood indicator changed to a smile.

"Smiles aren't merely based in muscle. Studies have proven they have a measurable effect on your mood states. These robots were designed to make you happy, but something went wrong, and they misinterpreted that instruction."

Bill frowned. "How would massacring hundreds of people make me happy?"

The Doctor matched Adelaide's forced grin. "How would massacring hundreds of people make me happy, smiley face."

The human smiled again. "Smiley face."

"Magic haddock."

Bill shook her head. "What magic haddock? What's that all about?"

"The robots want you to be happy but they got the wrong end of the stick." The Doctor looked to Adelaide. "I think we should give them what they want." He began to move towards the interface, plastering an even wider smile on his face. "Don't even try without smiling." Slowly, Adelaide and Bill followed her. "What a lovely place you have here. Thank you so much for your hospitality."

Bill nodded. "We will come again. Doctor, Adelaide, I was thinking maybe next time we might go to Wiltshire, perhaps, or Aberdeen."

"Ah, yes. Two thumbs up for Wiltshire slash Aberdeen."

They slid past the interface with their grins. For a moment, it seemed like they'd succeeded.

And then an interface grabbed Bill's arm. Its eyes had become skulls. "Help!"

"Smile! Smile!" the Doctor soniced the interface and it released her. They began to run, Adelaide leading the way.

When Bill looked back again, there was a swam of the robots following them. "Where did they come from?"

"Once we're out of the city, we should be safe."

**A/N: Off adventuring together again, finally! Adelaide did get to do a lot of the explaining here, but the Doctor was definitely taking a slight backseat just to ensure she was enjoying all the mystery solving. Forgot how much I loved Adelaide getting all sciencey :)**

_Notes on reviews:_

_lautaro94: I definitely agree. The Doctor and Adelaide are always so much fun to write together, but they are so bad at communicating their feelings that there was no way they'd be able to work together consistently without some big problems coming up. Hopefully, they can begin to fix it!_


	4. Negotiating

**Negotiating**

Once they'd reached the wheat field, they were able to slow, though they still walked quickly to where they'd left the TARDIS. "Are they coming after us?"

"We're not their problem now that we're out," Adelaide said.

The Doctor opened the TARDIS and gestured for Bill to go inside. "Right. You'll be perfectly safe in the TARDIS. She'll look after you until we..." his gaze fell on Adelaide, "I get back."

"Where are you going?"

"There's a giant smiley abattoir over there and I'm having this really childish impulse to blow it up. Be right back."

Bill frowned. "What, you're going back in? We've only just escaped! I thought we were going home."

"Home? Why would we be going home? That place is a living deathtrap. We can't just leave it with its mouth wide open."

"But they're all dead. We saw them. It's too late."

Adelaide shook her head. "It is almost guaranteed that there is a colony ship on its way. They're expecting to reach paradise. Not become fertilizer."

The Doctor's eyes were wide. "You're going to help?"

"I've been stuck doing nothing on earth for far too long."

When he grinned, it was so real and so beautiful that Adelaide remembered why she'd never quite stopped loving him.

Together, the Time Lords began to move back towards the city. "There's broadband in there," the Doctor told Bill. "Go! Go and watch some movies or something!"

"I get that someone has to do something, but why is it you? Can't you phone the police? Isn't there a helpline or something?"

The Time Lords turned, exchanging another grin as they looked at each other. "And stay away from my browser history!" They hurried beyond Bill's hearing. "You really want to help fix it?"

"Well, perhaps not explode the city. I'm hoping you're open to a different solution."

"What do you have in mind?"

She shrugged. "First, we have to determine why the interface decided to kill all humans. What went wrong."

"Solve the mystery."

"Why would you ever expect something different from me? But we will try to solve it and fix it first. We can't just blow it up."

"But blowing things up is so fun."

"I would never deny that." She pulled out the medallion she'd found and opened it as they entered the city. The Time Lords watched a hologram of a young boy. They had to force their smiles after that.

One of the interfaces walked towards them and the Time Lords turned it up even more.

The Doctor spread his arms wide. "Ah! Good morning! I'm happy! We're happy! Good morning. Look at us, we're happy, happy, happy, happy! What a lovely, beautiful morning, it makes us so happy. I'm happy. She's happy. We're happy. I hope that you are happy, too. See?" both of them turned, showing the interface their mood indicators. "Happy."

The interface's face changed to happy and it continued on. They pressed a hand to the wall, pausing for a moment, before continuing.

The Time Lords were hurrying up a slope when they heard something through the communicator devices. The Doctor touched his ear. "Hello? Is someone there? I can hear you breathing."

Adelaide touched his shoulder a moment before Bill spoke from behind them. "Why are you Scottish? Adelaide's not Scottish, and you're from the same place."

"I'm not Scottish, I'm just cross." They kept walking as they spoke.

"Is there a Scotland in space?"

"They're all over the place, demanding independence from every planet that they land on."

"And he's only developed that accent recently."

"Why are you here?"

Bill shrugged. "Because I figured out why you keep your box as a phone box."

"Adelaide told you, it's stuck."

"'Advice and Assistance Obtainable Immediately'," Bill quoted. "You like that."

"No, I don't." The Doctor's voice was tense. Adelaide knew she was responsible.

"See, this is the point. You don't call the helpline because you are the helpline."

The Doctor started moving again. He stayed far away from Adelaide. "Don't sentimentalize me. I don't just fly around helping people out."

Bill raised her eyebrows. "What are you doing right now?"

"I happened to be passing by, so I'm mucking in."

"You've never passed by in your life," Bill scoffed. "You couldn't even leave me serving chips, so I'm not going to leave you."

Adelaide turned and, given Bill's reaction, shocked the human with her severity. "Look at the wall. Notice everything. Use your eyes."

"The wall?"

"When the Vardy were following us, you asked where they were from. They didn't come from nowhere. They were here all along."

"What? In the wall?"

Adelaide shook her head. "Not in the wall. They are the wall." She turned and soniced the wall, making it shimmer and ripple in reaction. "The microbots did not simply build this city, they became it. The entire structure is built from interlocking microbots. They can be part of the wall in one moment, chasing people in the next."

"Smile," the Doctor said. "You're in the belly of the beast."

"So what do we do?"

"Well, the obvious. We find a real wall." The Doctor began moving and frowned at Bill's expression. "Oh, you really are smiling, aren't you?"

"Do you know why? You're both awesome tutors."

"Adelaide's taught me well."

"Just for the record," Adelaide told Bill, without looking at the human, "the Doctor may have a tendency towards interfering and helping out, but I am not him. I observe and I make notes, but I am no helpline."

Bill said nothing, but when Adelaide looked back at her, the human was still smiling.

"When the Vikings invaded," the Doctor said after they'd walked for a little longer, "they used to pull their longboats out of the water, turn them upside down and live in them as houses until they'd pillaged and looted enough to build new ones."

"So?"

"You didn't see a space ship outside, did you? When the settlers first landed, they must have lived in it and built out from it, so it's still here, somewhere inside this building. Ah," he turned, stopping to face a wall with enough imperfections that it stood out from the rest. It looked much more like a traditional human ship. "Bits of meteor damage. Flecks of rust. Rivets. Oh, I love rivets. A wall. A real, honest wall. Not made of tiny robots but made of any old iron."

Bill nodded. "Every spacecraft needs a door." She tried to pull the handle, though the door didn't move.

Right next to the handle, the Doctor pressed a button that officially opened it. "Not even locked. They were expecting to live in peace."

The interior of the ship looked like a human ship as well, not quite dark enough to make Adelaide nervous.

"Wicked," Bill breathed.

"We'll lock it after us, shall we?" the Doctor closed the door behind them. They could hear transformers turning on around them. "Its life support systems are starting up. It knows we're here."

Bill eyed the pipe above them. "Whoever did the interior decoration in here needs to take lessons from whoever did it out there."

"This was built by humans," Adelaide said, "that was built by Vardy."

"Wet brains, dry brains." They ducked under a staircase, moving across a landing. The Doctor, spotting something in the distance, grinned. "Ah! Good, old, universally compatible, incorruptible maps." They stopped before a map of the ship. The Doctor pointed at the red dot. "You are here."

Adelaide came up to his other side, pointing at another section of the map. "This is where the Doctor and I are going. The main records. Perhaps there's a record of when and what changed."

"Where am I going?"

"You're staying here and you will be guiding us to here, using this map." The Doctor pointed at his ear. "We'll hear you through the thingumabob."

With another nod, the Time Lords left her.

"I'm on a space ship," Bill said. "Like, for real. A proper one."

"Left or right?" the Doctor asked.

"Ow. Er...right."

The Time Lords obeyed, finding a cargo bay full of what appeared to be a mess of objects. "Well, they were certainly planning to make themselves at home here. They brought all their favorite knick-knacks."

"There should be a door..." Adelaide spotted it. "That leads onto a corridor." Bill sighed. "I really am on a spaceship."

"Yes. Which we are not about to blow up." He looked at Adelaide and nodded.

"How are you allowed to do that?" Bill asked. Adelaide decided that she did still quite like the human. "Like, if you were trying to blow it up right now, how are you allowed to do that and not get into trouble? I mean, blow something up, get into trouble. That is a standard sequence."

"He should get in trouble," Adelaide said. "He tends not to consider likely consequences."

"It's a moral imperative." The Doctor gestured at the space around them. "This is a murder machine."

"Which we may be able to fix without destroying it."

"Beautiful, though, I mean, the whole place," Bill said, speaking quietly. "You should be able to see a staircase."

Adelaide shrugged. "All traps are beautiful. That's why they're effective."

"Up or down?"

"Up."

"Attention," the system's computer announced. "Attention. Erehwon systems initiated."

The Doctor looked up. "The ship's systems are set to respond to human presence. It was sleeping. We walked in, now it's waking up."

"Er...there should be another door."

As Bill said it, the Doctor pushed the door open for Adelaide. "Got it." As they stepped into the room, an alarm went off. They hadn't reached the computer room yet, but it was clear they were close.

"Hang on, I'm being thick," Bill said. "I can come with you."

"Took that long to think of photographing it?"

"You'd already memorized it, hadn't you?"

"Both of us."

"Stop trying to keep me out of trouble."

The Doctor studied a control panel. "There's no trouble. We're finding a computer. This is going to be a stroll in the park." He frowned. "Deadlocked."

"Why did people come here?" Bill asked. "Did something terrible happen? The people who came here, were they the last people? Were they our last hope?"

He worked at hacking the control panel, though it just made another alarm go off. "Earth was evacuated," he explained. "But there were a number of ships. I've bumped into a few of them over the years. Adelaide too."

"You're making it worse," Adelaide told him.

The Doctor glanced at her. "Well, if we were trying to explode the engine, we'd already be finished by now."

"Then it is a good thing that we're not trying to explode it."

"Do you want to give this a try?"

"You're the technological expert."

The Doctor turned away from Adelaide and made a face just as the door finally opened. "There we go."

They'd just entered the room, Adelaide moving up to the terminal when Bill spoke again. "There's something you need to know."

"What is it?" Adelaide asked.

"There's a...boy."

The Time Lords froze and looked at each other and Adelaide was incredibly thankful that she'd convinced the Doctor not to explode this city. Especially as, when the computer signaled that it had found the records she'd searched for, they realized the truth of their current situation.

"He wants to know where everybody is?"

"Doctor, the colony ship isn't on its way." Adelaide gestured him over. "They're already here."

"My very good people," the computer system began to announce, no doubt triggered by at least one of the two pairs, "we will soon be beginning an emergency disembarkation. Good people, please prepare for disembarkation. We wish you a happy new world."

The Doctor's eyes widened. "Bill, I'll come find you." He rushed out of the computer room. "Where are you?"

"Cryostore."

Adelaide pulled out her sonic, plugging it into the computer to transfer all of the information she could, and then followed the Doctor out. She managed to find the Doctor and Bill just as the two converged together, the Doctor beginning to explain exactly what everything meant.

"The colonists are all around us, cryogenically frozen." He gestured around at the pods surrounding them, filling the entire space. "What's in these pods, Bill, is the surviving population of Earth." He turned, looking at Adelaide. "And I might have killed all of them."

"Welcome to your new world," the computer repeated. "Be happy."

Bill stepped closer to one of the pods. "They're waking up, aren't they?"

Adelaide nodded. "We must have triggered the process at some point within this ship."

"So what happens now?"

"Now? Now they're all going to leave this ship, and find their friends and family mulched in the garden. And if they don't smile about it, it's going to be the end of the human race." He looked at Adelaide. "Thank you."

She raised her eyebrows but said nothing. The Doctor admitting that he was wrong shouldn't have meant something, it shouldn't have been surprising. But it did. It was.

"Oh!" a voice said, making the group turn as a young man came up to them, emerging from further down the row of pods. "Oh, those pods, eh? Not much headroom." He frowned at them. "I thought I'd be first up." He held out a hand. "Steadfast, MedTech One. What day is this?"

"The end of the world."

Steadfast smiled. "Again? We've only just got here."

The Doctor stepped back. "Bill, with Adelaide and me."

"What's happening?"

The Doctor pointed at Steadfast. "What's happening is nobody leaves this ship until Adelaide or I tell you otherwise. Clear? Nobody leaves." He turned and walked off, matching pace with Adelaide automatically.

Bill hurried after them. "Where are we going?"

"No idea. But if we look purposeful, they'll think we've got a plan. If they think we've got a plan, at least they won't try to think of a plan themselves."

Adelaide had to bite her tongue.

Bill frowned. "But you two don't have a plan."

"We'll be able to determine how to stop what happened from happening again if we can determine what happened last time." Adelaide held up her sonic. "Hopefully, I have the necessary data here."

Bill paused. "I think I can show you something better." She gestured for them to follow her.

"Section A34, reanimation sequence commencing."

Bill brought them back through the cargo bay to a separate door from the one Adelaide and the Doctor had hurried through earlier. This room was notably different, as it had a dead woman in the middle of it. There was no computer terminal in the room, but there was a book that served primarily as a summary of the woman's life. Adelaide flicked through the pictures as the Doctor leaned against the other end of the stone.

"The spacecraft landed," Adelaide began. "Most of the colonists were kept in cryogenic suspension. A select few..."

"The best ones," Bill added. "The brave ones."

She nodded. "They woke to help shepherd the Vardy robots." She looked down at the pictures. "These images are of her with the other shepherds."

Bill shook her head. "She came here. She was happy. And they're all dead."

Adelaide typed. "If the records are rearranged to reflect the time of death..." Bill and the Doctor came to either side of her, looking at the tree that the data created.

"That's her."

The Doctor nodded at the body. "This woman died. There's no sign of violence."

"She died a natural death. Humans still die from natural deaths in the future."

The Doctor moved up the tree. "Then a few more people died at the same time, and then a lot more died just after, and then, the rest. Dozens."

Bill's eyes widened. "A virus? A virus that went, well, viral?"

The Time Lords looked at each other. "Grief," the Doctor said after a moment.

"Grief," Adelaide repeated.

"Grief as plague."

"But how?"

Adelaide held up her sonic. "The Vardies." She plugged it into the book and handed it to the Doctor to search through.

He nodded. "Their job was to maintain happiness. At first, that meant making sure there was enough oxygen and water. That's what the badges are meant to communicate. Satisfaction, a positive mental state. But the Vardy are smart. They learn, try to be good servants, so they expand the definition of happiness until..."

"She dies."

"No one had ever died here before this lady. The Vardies, they'd never heard of grief before." He gestured at the room. "This place is all about hope and the future, and happiness. No one ever thought about the opposite."

"The Vardies weren't prepared to handle it," Adelaide continued. "They identified grief as the enemy of happiness and everyone who experienced grief became a problem. Thus, they became..."

"Compost."

Adelaide nodded. "And all those dead people had friends and family, so..."

"Even more compost."

"And so on, and so on, and so on. And what you get is a whole grief tsunami."

Bill frowned. "And all of this took how long? One morning? All of these people were slaughtered in a day?"

Adelaide nodded. "Slaughtered for their own good because the Vardy think differently than human minds. It's not bad, not good, just different."

"Like the magic haddock."

Bill looked between the Time Lords. "So, what will happen when the new people meet the robots?" Adelaide handed Bill the medallion she'd found. "That's the boy. The first to wake up. Where did you get this?"

"We think it's his mother's, don't you?" the Doctor asked.

"Yea, or his Nan's. Well, he'll find her, when she wakes up in her pod."

Adelaide raised her eyebrows at Bill. "I found it in the fruit garden, Bill."

The human's eyes widened. "Oh."

"I would say that a lot of the colonists had friends or family who were working here as shepherds. When they find out what happened..."

"They'll be grief-stricken."

"And after that..."

"A massacre." The Time Lords exchanged another look and turned to leave. It was almost refreshing that, even after so long apart, even after everything that had happened, what they'd developed back on Christmas still held strong. "Okay, where are we going?"

"What's the opposite of a massacre?"

Bill took a moment to think. "Okay, what?"

The Doctor grinned. "In my experience, a lecture."

|C-S|

There were quite a few humans awake by the time that the time travelers returned to the Cryostore. Adelaide did not like that they had to lecture to the humans, but she'd rather they make an informed choice about how to proceed with the Vardy than wander in blind.

It was still disappointing when the humans turned around and began to arm themselves.

"You need to listen," Bill tried, rushing after Steadfast.

"I did listen. What did I miss? The Vardy have killed our families."

The Doctor shook his head. "But you need to understand why that happened."

"I don't care why."

"Then you will die," Adelaide said. "And everyone on your ship will die. Yet, the Vardy are not your enemy."

Steadfast frowned. "They want to kill us."

"No, they want to help you. Killing you is merely a side-effect."

"Get out of my way." Steadfast pushed Adelaide away, which made the Doctor glare at him.

"You're facing a living city, and you believe that guns will be effective?" Adelaide asked. "At all?"

Steadfast didn't respond.

Bill looked around them, growing panicked. "That little boy, where did he go?"

|C-S|

Thankfully, the Doctor, Adelaide, and Bill found the boy rather quickly. Regrettably, they also found him standing in front of two interfaces.

"There he is!" Bill cried, pointing.

Steadfast, who'd led the armed awakened colonists, raised his weapon. "Step away from the kid."

"They're not armed," Bill tried. "You don't need to do this. You just need to..."

"What's wrong?" the boy asked, looking around the group. "What's going on? Where's my mum? Where's everyone? Where's everyone?" His eyes began to tear up and one of the interfaces took the boy's wrist.

Bill rushed forward. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no! Don't cry, don't cry!" She took the boy's shoulders. "Hey, hey. Look, everything's going to be okay. Look, this is your new house. Isn't it lovely?"

The boy shook his head. "I want Mummy."

Bill forced a smile. "Smile. Smile. Smile. Smile. Everything's going to be fine if you just keep smiling."

The interfaces' expressions changed to skulls.

"Get away from the kid!" the colonists shot one of the interfaces. The other one beeped and its display changed, flickering.

The Doctor frowned at it. "What's that? Rage? Revenge?"

Steadfast shook his head. "It's one robot."

"It's not one robot." Bill looked at the Time Lords. "Doctor, what do we do? Adelaide, what's happening?"

A section of the roof transformed into a swarm of Vardies, making the colonists move back in shock. "Cover fire, now!"

Adelaide's eyes widened. "Oh, I'm really out of practice."

Bill looked at her. "Why?"

"The Vardy are identifying as under attack. This means that they have learned to identify as something separate from the beings that created them. They have become self-aware."

The Doctor looked extremely excited. "They...they're alive!"

"They're going to kill us!" as Bill said that, some of the Vardies killed one of the colonists. The Doctor, catching Adelaide's sonic when she threw it at him, bent down to the shot interface and pulled off its center plate. "What are you doing?"

"I really hope this doesn't hurt." He winced. "Adelaide, why do I always win at chess?"

The Time Lady flashed a smile. "You kick over the board." He'd taught it to her, after all. It had helped defeat the Cyberplanner.

"Here it comes!" He soniced the interface and sent out a shockwave of white light, knocking all of the humans down. The only people who weren't affected were the Time Lords, who were left staring at each other.

"You're going to wake them up to the story of the magic haddock, aren't you?"

He stood. "Wasn't this fun?" She didn't respond, but he knew the answer. "Once, long ago, a fisherman caught a magic haddock. The haddock offered the fisherman three wishes in return for its life. The fisherman said, 'I'd like my son to come home from the war and a hundred pieces of gold.' The problem is magic haddock, like robots, don't think like people. The fisherman's son came home from the war in a coffin and the King sent a hundred gold pieces in recognition of his heroic death. The fisherman had one wish left. What do you think he wished for?" The colonists, Bill included, began waking up, rubbing their foreheads. "Some people say he should have wished for an infinite series of wishes, but if your city proves anything, it is that granting all your wishes is not a good idea."

The colonists scrambled away from the interfaces as they noticed them again. "Don't worry, it doesn't even know who you are," Adelaide said.

"What happened?" Steadfast asked. "What have you done?"

"In fact," the Doctor continued, "the fisherman wished that he hadn't wished the first two wishes. You see, in a way, he pressed the reset button."

"What the hell did you do?"

The Doctor frowned at him. "Aren't you listening? It's polite to listen, you should try it sometime."

"He pressed the reset button," Adelaide explained. "Every computer has one."

"And anyone can find it, especially if they happen to be a scary, handsome genius from space." The Doctor grinned. "I re-initialized the entire command structure, retaining all programmed abilities but deleting the supplementary preference architecture."

Bill's eyes widened. "He turned it off and on again."

The Doctor nodded. "I turned it off and on again." He tossed Adelaide back her sonic. "Of course, I wiped their memories. They no longer have the faintest idea who you are and, in fact, they're wondering what you're doing in their very nice city."

Steadfast frowned. "Their city?"

"Yes, their city," Adelaide repeated. "It is made of them, after all."

"It's our city. They're our robots."

Bill shook her head. "They were."

The Doctor spread his arms. "Welcome to your new world. Meet the Vardy. They are, as of now, the indigenous life form. You'd best make friends with them because there's loads of them, and they're the only ones who know how anything works. I'd recommend you be polite. Everyone prefers it when you're polite."

"They killed our people."

He shrugged. "Well, look, they have forgotten about that. They've forgotten about you. They've forgotten that you even made them in the first place. Now, since they have absolute power over this city, and since I'm assuming you all don't want to sleep rough tonight, I have a suggestion for you. Smile."

Steadfast shook his head. "You can't be serious."

"I am serious." The Doctor nodded at Adelaide, though the Time Lady had a limited desire to stop him. "In fact, I'm willing to be a negotiator."

"Are you now?"

"Yes. Watch." He moved up to the interface, waving. "Hello, I'm the Doctor. This," he gestured at the Time Lady, "is Adelaide. A few hours ago, we made the mistake of not recognizing your status as an emergent new lifeform. As recompense for our mistake, please allow me to act as your negotiator with a migratory conglomerate known as the human race. They're looking for a place to stay and they've got their eye on your city. Would you like me to discuss rent?"

The interface's eyes flashed with human pound signs.

|C-S|

When the trio of time travelers made their way back to the TARDIS, Bill managed to get the Doctor away from Adelaide, though away only meant a few steps. "So, what's the deal with..."

"Not now, Bill," Adelaide said, not looking back. "I believe I told you that we can talk about this later."

Bill shrugged, playing at innocence. "Well, you two were alone for a little. I thought you'd talk then."

"You could hear us the entire time. You know that we did not discuss our history."

Bill held up her hands. "Fine, I'll be patient."

The Doctor pointed at her. "Good. Patience is polite, and you should want to be polite, because Adelaide likes when you're polite, and you want Adelaide to like you."

"Good to know that you haven't forgotten that yet, Doctor."

They reached the TARDIS, the Time Lord moving to unlock the door. "Even when you weren't there, I didn't forget it."

"If only you could apply it."

He frowned at her. "I apply it." Adelaide raised her eyebrows. "Sometimes." He opened the door, stepping aside to let the other two in first.

Bill turned to walk backwards up to the console. "So, is it going to work?"

"That's up to them."

"Did you just, well...did we just jumpstart a new civilization?"

The Doctor shrugged. "It's a dirty job but someone's got to do it."

"Did you do this all the time?"

"Do what?"

"Fly around sorting things out, like some kind of intergalactic policeman and woman." Bill looked between the Time Lords. Their shoulders tensed. "Okay, I clearly touched on a nerve."

The Doctor was quiet. "I don't sort things out. I'm definitely not a policeman."

"And I am a scientist." Adelaide held Bill's gaze. "Only a scientist."

Bill shrugged. "Well, the Doctor lives in a police box."

"That's a pure coincidence."

"Yeah, of course."

Instead of responding, the Time Lords worked to pilot them back to earth. Bill gathered that it was not a subject she should push further at this moment.

When the TARDIS landed, the Doctor stepped away from the console. "Back at the exact moment we left. The kettle's boiling, I've got a vault to guard, and everything is exactly as we left it."

Bill went over to the door and leaned out. "Wasn't snowing when we left."

The Time Lords looked at each other and rushed to the door, looking out. "Maybe I do need a steering wheel."

"You don't steer your TARDIS, you negotiate with it," Adelaide repeated.

"Where are we?"

The Doctor stuck out a hand to test the air. "London. And this," he gestured at the crowd around them, "is the Thames."

Adelaide didn't bother repressing her grin.

**A/N: Aw, teamwork from the Time Lords is ever so fun :)**


	5. Morally

**Morally**

They ducked back into the TARDIS, Time Lords moving to the scanner.

"Okay," Bill said. "I have questions. You never said we could travel to parallel worlds!"

The Doctor shook his head. "Not a parallel world."

Bill pointed out the door. "But that's London."

Adelaide nodded. "Yes, our London. Our Thames. The TARDIS travels in time."

The Doctor spun Bill the screen. "Welcome to the last great Frost Fair. 1814, February the fourth."

"Hang on, why aren't we home? Can't you steer this thing?"

"As I just reminded you, you don't steer the TARDIS, you reason with it."

"How?"

Adelaide shrugged. "Unsuccessfully. Even I can't manage it, and I reason with everything."

The Doctor set the TARDIS to move again, bringing them somewhere a bit more away from the crowd. "She's a bad girl, this one. Always looking for trouble." He blinked. "The TARDIS, not Adelaide."

"I avoid trouble."

Bill raised her eyebrows, already moving back to the door as they settled. "Then why'd you end up with the Doctor?" Before Adelaide could respond, Bill looked out of the door again. "Whoa."

"Last day before the thaw," the Doctor said, moving to Bill's side. "Thought I'd better find a more reliable parking spot."

"Wait, you want to go out there?"

The Doctor grinned. "You don't?"

"It's 1814." Bill gestured at her face. "Melanin."

"Yes?"

"Slavery is still totally a thing."

"Yes, so it is."

Bill looked back at Adelaide. "It might be, like, dangerous out there."

She nodded. "Definitely dangerous."

"So, how do we stay out of trouble?"

"Be polite."

Bill raised her eyebrows. "Okay, when you go somewhere dangerous, what do you take?"

The Doctor nodded behind them. "First door on the left, second right, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on the left."

"What's there?"

"The wardrobe." He grinned. "Pick a dress."

"So the TARDIS has dresses and likes a bit of trouble?" Bill nodded. "Yeah, I think I'm low-key in love with her."

The Doctor patted the TARDIS's side. "Me too."

Bill moved back into the TARDIS but paused, turning to grab Adelaide's arm. "Can you help?"

Adelaide raised her eyebrows. "You're going to make me wear a gown as well, aren't you?"

Bill grinned. Adelaide sighed. The Doctor forced himself not to look at Adelaide, not to smile.

|C-S|

Somehow, Bill managed to also convince the Doctor to change his clothing to fit in more with the times. Granted, his change involved a top hat and coat, but it was something. More than he tended to do. Bill had embraced it fully, finding a fur-trimmed dress and a hat with an extremely large feather. Adelaide's resembled hers, even in a similar dark color palette, but was far less extravagant.

The Doctor was the first one out of the TARDIS and he held out a hand for both of the women, though only Bill actually took him up on the offer. Adelaide made a point of walking past him, looking down off the bridge to the crowd of people wandering the Thames.

"Doesn't anyone notice the TARDIS?" Bill asked, trying to ease the tension that had returned.

"Your species hardly notices anything." The Doctor joined Adelaide at the edge of the bridge, though he didn't touch her. "It's why Adelaide always has to remind people to use their eyes and notice everything." He turned away, moving down the bridge. Bill rushed after him. Adelaide was last.

Bill looked between the Time Lords. "So, what are the rules?"

The Doctor frowned. "Rules?"

"Yeah. Traveling to the past, there's got to be rules." Adelaide had to smile at that. "If I step on a butterfly, it could send ripples through time that mean I'm not even born in the first place and I could just disappear."

The Doctor nodded and Adelaide knew he was pretending at seriousness. "Definitely. I mean, that's what happened to Pete."

"Pete?"

"Your friend, Pete. He was standing there a moment ago, but he stepped on a butterfly and now you don't even remember him."

Bill crossed her arms. "Shut up! I'm being serious!"

"Yeah, so was Pete."

"You know what I mean. Every choice I make in this moment, here and now, could change the whole future."

Adelaide nodded, stepping up to Bill's side. "Yes, but for humanity, that is no different than normal. I recommend being careful, but time has ways of maintaining itself. It does not need protection from time-displaced humans."

"But it needs protection from a time-displaced Time Lord," the Doctor mumbled.

"Yes, Doctor, it does." She looked at Bill again. "Bill, you can stop worrying. The Doctor and I are the only ones who need to be concerned about something like that, and we have quite a lot of experience."

Bill eyed them. "Hmm...okay, if you say so."

"Besides, by traveling here with the TARDIS, you've already been established in the timeline. The ripples from your actions now have already had an impact on your present." The Doctor glanced back at Adelaide when she said that, his confusion from this entire conversation evident in the shape of his eyebrows.

They both knew that her statement was a lie. They both knew that even humans could make ripples if they were displaced, both knew that any time travel was dangerous to the established history – the Doctor acknowledge it, though he flouted it. And they both knew that Adelaide hated lying.

Yet here she was, lying to Bill. Lying to protect Bill. To keep her calm.

She felt like the Doctor. It was almost worrying, how quickly she'd fallen into that again.

"Chestnuts, sir?" a man asked as the Doctor passed, drawing his attention away from Adelaide. The Doctor took a bag.

A young girl stepped in Bill's path, holding out a flyer. "Come to the Frost Fair, miss. Only a sixpence, miss."

Bill's eyes were wide. "Oh my God."

"You're not stepping on a butterfly," the Doctor told her, "you're just taking a flyer." Bill took the flyer, the Doctor giving the young girl the chestnuts before putting his top hat on her head. "It's just time travel. Don't overthink it."

Bill smiled. "Is that what you said to Pete?"

"Who's Pete?"

They turned, moving down the steps to the iced surface of the river. The Doctor gave the men collecting payment two sixpences for him and Adelaide, letting Bill give the flyer. Though the Time Lords walked out onto the ice with ease, the human was slower, pausing at the edge to lift her skirts and step gingerly on, as though worried her singular weight would be enough to send the entire frost fair into the water.

"Yeah, no big deal," Bill said to herself. "Just walking on the Thames." She looked up to the Time Lords and grinned. "I hope you realize I'm going to try everything. Everything." She hurried past them into the collection of stalls.

The Time Lords moved behind her, walking side by side but both careful to keep their hands very clearly apart from one another.

"Tasty ox cheek, piping hot!"

"Lapland mutton! Lapland mutton, cooked right on the ice!"

"Get your sheep hearts here! Juicy, juicy sheep hearts!"

Bill made a face at the latest merchant, turning to Adelaide, as the Doctor had stepped away. "Yeah, maybe not everything."

The Doctor reappeared, a skewer of food in hand. "Oh, go on. Try this, at least." Bill's face was worse. "It's my favorite."

"Your favorite? You've been here before?"

The Doctor nodded. "Oh, yeah. A few times." He gestured at the crowd. "I don't even remember how many versions of Adelaide and I there are wandering around this place."

"I remember," Adelaide told him. "I also seem to remember Stevie Wonder being somewhere under the London Bridge." The Doctor mimed zipping his mouth closed. "That was originally your idea."

"You didn't fight it."

She almost smiled. "Even I can enjoy a few anachronisms." She turned, looking for Bill. "Must I be the one to keep track of your companion?"

"You were interested in her too."

"Perhaps, but she's only traveled in your ship." Adelaide did smile then. "Once she's tried mine, she can decide whose companion she wants to be, if any."

The Doctor turned, pointing. "Found her." The Time Lords made their way through the crowd to an area of performers, Bill turning from a sword swallower to two wrestlers.

"Get in!" Bill cheered.

"Of course, it's not really wrestling unless it's in zero gravity."

Bill turned to the Doctor. "Seriously?"

"With tentacles." The Doctor mimed it.

"Okay."

"And magic spells."

The crowd cheered the fight. The time travelers moved away, though Bill frowned at the crowd. "Interesting."

Adelaide glanced at her. "Interesting?"

"Regency England. Bit more black than they show in the movies."

The Doctor shrugged. "So was Jesus. History's a whitewash."

Adelaide's gaze drifted down to the ice, frowning at a small burst of bright green light.

|C-S|

After Bill won a skittles game that she convinced the Doctor to take part in – the Time Lord was annoyed when he lost, but Adelaide found him a new top hat to appease him. The sight of a pie seller's booth, a man that the Doctor remembered wanting to try from one of their many previous visits, also helped.

"Best fish pies on the ice," the man called, gesturing to the crowd. "Try your luck, ladies and gentlemen! Toss for a pie!"

Adelaide pushed Bill closer. "Give it a try."

"The lady wants to try her hand?" the man asked, holding out a hand. "Pay me a coin and we'll see how lady luck will treat you today." Bill handed it over. "Heads or tails?"

"Heads." The man flipped it, showing tails. "Argh!"

The man pocketed the coin. "Better luck next time, miss." He gave Bill a pie.

"And you're sure this isn't cow brains or sheep eyes or..."

The man shook his head. "I caught the fish myself, miss. Made it right here in the old..." he was interrupted by the Doctor moving forward, the Time Lord's brows furrowed. The man had slipped away from Adelaide before she could grab him and stop him. "Hey! What are you about?"

"Do that again. Toss the coin."

The man shrugged. "Pay me another coin and I will."

The Doctor handed over a coin. "Forget about the pie, I don't want a pie. I just want to see how you cheated."

"Cheated?!"

"Adelaide," Bill called, making the Time Lady turn. Part of her wanted to stay to try and appease the Doctor and the pie seller, but there was only so much trouble even the Time Lord could get into in 1814.

"Yes?"

Bill pointed. "There are lights."

"Don't look at me like that," the Doctor tried. "I'm saying you're a very good con-man."

"I'm a what?"

Bill and Adelaide left the shop, following the lights.

"A trickster. A swindler. You see, I'm a bit of a thief myself. I bet that I could steal anything from your shop."

"Get out!" there was a thud as the Doctor was tossed out of the stall.

"In theory!" the Doctor called back. "I could steal anything in theory!"

"Leave the theories to me," Adelaide mumbled, frowning at the ice. She hadn't noticed anything strange about it the previous times, but she hadn't been paying attention to the ice.

The Doctor rolled his shoulders. "Honestly, some people." He held out a pie. "More pie?"

Bill just looked at Adelaide. "Are there side-effects to time travel? Like, physical symptoms?"

"Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah," the Doctor said, waving a hand. "Sometimes you see lights under the ice."

Bill disposed of the rest of her pies. "Okay, so you've seen the lights."

The Doctor nodded. "Of course."

"Well, why didn't you say something?"

"Well, you're enjoying yourself. I assumed we'd get to work eventually."

Adelaide crossed her arms. "Theories. Are the lights electric or organic?"

"Organic lights?"

"Bioluminescence. Fireflies. Glow-worms."

The Doctor turned as a young girl wrapped in a shawl pulled on his coat. She held up a dog collar and lead. "Please, sir. Have you seen my dog? He was right here, but then I looked away and he..." her lip quivered.

Bill stepped forward. "It's okay, we'll help. Um, what does he look like?"

"He's small and brown and ever so soft."

The Doctor frowned. "Are you sure of that? That collar's for a big dog. With long white hair. Nice con, though. Respect." He spun as a child grabbed his sonic from behind, grabbing the boy's wrist. They struggled for a moment, but it was quickly ended by the young girl kicking the Doctor in the shins.

"Run!" the girl ordered and both children ran off. Adelaide may have not gone off in chase, but the boy had still ended up with the Doctor's sonic screwdriver in hand. Even in the hands of a poor child, leaving the sonic had unknowable ripples.

But they lost the children as a troupe of acrobats crossed their path, forcing the time travelers to stop.

"What happened to the girl?" the Doctor asked, turning around.

"Does it matter? The boy's the one with your magic wand."

"Sonic screwdriver," Adelaide corrected.

Bill frowned. "How is that a screwdriver?"

She smiled. "In a very broad sense."

"All right, how's it sonic?"

"It makes a noise," the Doctor said, before pointing at Adelaide. "She has a sonic pen!"

"And there are the children," Adelaide nodded towards the two children as they ducked out of a tent.

They chased the children around the frost fair, finally managing to get close to them at the edge of the frost fair, though that was only because the boy had stopped to stare at the ice.

"The lights," the Doctor said. "He's seen the lights."

They rushed forward, but the ice below the boy began to crack. "Kitty?" the boy said, looking up. But no one had the chance to do anything before he fell through the ice.

The only thing left of him was his arm, sticking up through the ice and holding up the Doctor's sonic.

"Stay back!" the Doctor began to edge forward as the boy continued to sink. He reached for the boy's hand, trying to grab him, but only managed to get the sonic. The ice sealed itself. The boy was gone.

Bill turned to Adelaide. "Save him."

Adelaide shook her head. "We can't. He's gone."

Bill looked to the Doctor. "Do something and save him."

The Time Lord only looked to the young girl. "I'm sorry about your friend, but the danger isn't over yet. There must be more of you living rough here. Tell me where."

The girl adjusted her shawl. "So, you can take us to the Magistrate?"

"No, of course not. We're not here to arrest you, we're here to help. And if you show me where you live, we can do that."

"We? One of you has already gone!"

Both Time Lords turned around at that. Bill had already vanished, which Adelaide mostly blamed herself for.

|C-S|

It proved far easier to find Bill than it had been to find the children. The Time Lords approached her carefully.

"How did you find me?" Bill asked, rubbing her eyes.

"Get used to that question."

"Oh, clever. Yeah, very clever."

"Adelaide's the clever one." The Doctor frowned at her. "What's wrong?"

Bill turned to him, eyes narrowed. "What's wrong? Seriously, what's wrong? I've never seen anyone die before."

Adelaide raised her eyebrows. "A few hours ago, we could have been rained on by dead people."

"That was different."

"How, exactly?"

"They were dead already."

"Morally and practically, there is no difference."

The Doctor pointed at Bill. "Unlearn it."

Bill crossed her arms. "Don't tell me what to think."

"I'm your teacher. Telling you things is what I do."

Bill nodded. "Yeah? Tell me this. You've both seen people die before, yeah?"

"Of course."

"You still care?"

The Doctor nodded. "Of course I care." Adelaide was silent.

"How many?"

"How many what?"

"If you care so much, tell me how many people you've seen die? Each of you."

Adelaide stayed silent. Let Bill think the Doctor spoke for both of them. It was easier than admitting Adelaide's truth, a fact she was suddenly ashamed of.

"I don't know." The Doctor looked to Adelaide. "We don't know."

"Okay. How many before you lost count?"

Adelaide was still quiet.

"We care, Bill, but we move on." It was almost impressive how well the Doctor was lying. Any other time, Adelaide would have criticized the Doctor for speaking for her, but she was self-aware enough to know that she couldn't tell her truth now.

She knew she couldn't tell Bill that for the majority of her lives, she did not care about the people she saw die. She'd just moved on. Continued working.

"Yeah? How quickly?"

The Doctor frowned at Bill. "It's not me or Adelaide you're angry with."

"Have you ever killed anyone?" Bill looked between them. "Either of you? There's a look in both of your eyes sometimes that makes me wonder. Have you?"

The Doctor swallowed. "There are situations when the choices available are limited."

"Not what I asked."

"Sometimes the choices are very..."

"That's not what I asked!"

"Yes," Adelaide answered.

"How many?" That time, both Time Lords were silent. "Don't tell me. You've moved on."

The Doctor stepped forward. "You know what happens if I, if we, don't move on? More people die. There are kids living rough near here. They may well be next on the menu. Do you want to help us? Do you want to stand here stamping your foot? Because let me tell you something. I'm two thousand years old, and I have never had the time for the luxury of outrage."

Adelaide wished that could be true. She may have found it easier to admit she still loved him if it was.

Bill looked still near tears, but her gaze fell to a point behind the Doctor. Noticing that, both Time Lords turned.

It was the girl, Kitty. "What do you mean, on the menu?"

|C-S|

Bill was the main one responsible for convincing Kitty to let the trio of time travelers come to where the children lived on the frost fairs. The human was the first one in after the child. "Is this where you live?" Bill asked, looking around the small, dark, dirty room.

"For now."

"But there's no one here."

Kitty, surprising them all, grinned. "Good work!" Children popped out of various hiding places around the room. "Except you, Dot." Kitty pointed towards one of them. "I can see your shoes."

The young girl crossed her arms. She was the one the Doctor had gifted his original top hat. "They're too big, that's why!"

The Doctor nodded. "Oh, I see! I get it. You lure people to the fair and then you rob them. Very good. Very enterprising."

Dot stepped closer to Kitty, hiding her face in the older girl's shawl. Kitty wrapped an arm around her. "They're all right, Dot. Strange. But all right. And that's not how it is."

"Oh, what? You don't rob people?"

Kitty shrugged. "Course we do. But bringing people to the fair, that's by-the-by. On the side, like."

"Why?"

"Why? For coin, of course. Why else?"

The Doctor nodded. "Someone pays you to promote the fair, get people onto the ice?" Kitty nodded. "Who? Who pays you?"

Before the girl could answer, another child drew her attention. "Kitty, where's Spider?"

"Spider is...he..."

"Who's hungry?" the Doctor interrupted, putting on a large grin and reaching into his bigger on the inside pockets. "I'm hungry. Food! Bill, food!" he gave Bill some of the fish pies. "Food is always useful." Together, the Time Lord and the human handed out the food. "Now, I know what you're thinking, but don't worry. These are stolen!" He held up a finger. "But don't tell Adelaide!" He grinned again when a few of the children giggled. "Well, eat up." He looked to Kitty. "Ah, with your permission, of course."

Kitty granted it and the children devoured the food. The Doctor stepped back to Adelaide's side to watch.

|C-S|

Adelaide wasn't certain how the Doctor had been convinced to read the orphans a story, but somehow they had managed it. He sat by the fire with the children surrounding them. "Don't suck your thumbs while I'm away. The great tall tailor always comes to little boys who suck their thumbs. Ere they dream what he's about he takes his great sharp scissors out and cuts their thumbs clean off and then..."

As the Doctor read, Bill and Adelaide stood to the side, though they both took note of Kitty ducking to the side, her fish pie half-eaten. To her credit, the child spotted them watching. "You done staring yet?"

Bill smiled. "We're going to find out what those things are, okay? They're not going to hurt anyone else, I promise." Bill nodded. "I promise. The Doctor...and Adelaide, they help people. That's what they do."

Adelaide opened her mouth to refute that claim, but Kitty spoke for her. "You weren't doing much helping."

"That is because I do not," Adelaide said, speaking firmer than she might have usually, for Bill's sake. "The Doctor may help, the Doctor may save, but I do not. You deserve to know the truth, Kitty."

The girl nodded. "And you?" she asked Bill. "What do you do, apart from shout at him?"

"We were fighting. It happens."

"Are you still fighting now?"

Bill didn't look at the Time Lords. "No. I moved on."

"Good." Adelaide's statement made Bill turn. "Moving on is necessary, Bill."

"You are not someone I would expect to be telling me that," Bill said. "Or have you and the Doctor moved on from whatever happened between you?"

"That's different."

"How?"

Adelaide glanced at the Doctor. The Time Lord was focused on the children, but she knew he could hear their conversation. "Not here, Bill. Not now."

"I thought the Doctor was a stranger, but now I know who really is."

Adelaide hated how much she agreed. "Regardless of what you may think of me, even I will not deny that the Doctor saves more than he harms." She looked at Kitty. "You can trust him, Kitty."

"Okay," the Doctor's voice was intentionally loud enough to draw their attention. "I'm wondering why the Frost Fair's on this part of the river. I bet that at least one of you knows who paid Kitty to take people out on the ice."

"It was a bad man, with a ship," Dot said, earning her an arm slap from another girl.

"Dottie!"

"A ship?" the Doctor pressed. "What, do you mean a merchant?"

"Not that kind of ship," a young boy said.

"Perry!"

"What?"

Kitty moved forward. "It's all right. You can tell him."

"It's a drawing," Dot said. "Here. On his hand." She pointed at the spot.

"So, this guy, where would we find him?" Bill asked.

"He finds us."

"But a tattoo on his hand, I mean, we could ask around?"

The Doctor waved a hand. "Boring! I know something that's much easier to find." He stood, gesturing for Bill and Adelaide to follow him.

"Where are we going?"

"All right." He stopped in the doorway, turning back to the children. "You guys, hang tight! Laters." With a grin, he ducked out. Adelaide was quick to follow him. As conflicting as it might be, she preferred the Doctor's company over Bill's at that moment. At least she and the Doctor had an established history of ignoring their issues. Bill had established herself as the opposite. "I was being all 'down with the kids' there, did you notice?"

"Yeah, my hair was cringing."

He grinned. "Awesome." He knew what the conversation between the Time Lady and human had been, but it was so much easier to pretend it wasn't happening now. Adelaide was thankful for that, in her own way.

"Please stop." They moved closer to the wharf. "So, what's easier to find?"

The Doctor, instead of speaking, looked to Adelaide, and she had to smile. "Conjecture," she said. "There's something frozen under the Thames eating people and generating green lights. Proposal. We need to get a closer look at it."

The Doctor pointed at her. "Adelaide's best at theories."

"And the Doctor is best at..."

"Plan," the Doctor finished. "Let's get eaten."

Bill frowned at Adelaide. "Do you really let him do things like that?"

"Remember how the Doctor wins at chess?"

"He kicks over the board."

Adelaide nodded. "I set up the pieces. He upturns the board." The Doctor moved ahead of both the women, finding a cart ahead of them. "It's how we worked."

"Worked? Past tense?"

"Yes." Adelaide swallowed. "Past. As I hope you understand now, we have yet to determine how we will be moving forward."

They stopped in front of the cart the Doctor had found, watching the Time Lord unload the equipment inside. "Is this stuff safe?" Bill asked.

"Potentially."

"Potentially? What does potentially mean?"

"Safe, with a frisson of excitement."

Bill eyed the equipment. "Right, but we're not going to be like completely defenseless down there, though?"

The Doctor waved a hand. "No, no, no, no. Well, yes. But don't worry about it."

"Why not? What have you got up your sleeve?" Bill's eyes widened. "Oh, my God! Have you been holding out on me? Do you two have, like, magical, alien powers?" Instead of answering, the Doctor held up a diving helmet and breathed on it, polishing the front. "What, was that an impolite question?"

"Take a guess," Adelaide said.

The Doctor pointed at Bill. "Always be polite. Adelaide likes you when you're polite, and you want Adelaide to like you."

|C-S|

The Doctor made a point of pulling Adelaide to the side, apart from Bill, to speak to her before night fell and they went to be eaten by the thing in the river. They didn't have much time, as it had taken time to get the diving suits up to working order, but they did have a few minutes.

There were hundreds of things the Time Lords needed to discuss, but what the Doctor chose to focus on, what he chose to be sure Adelaide knew, was that she didn't have to do this.

Adelaide was brave. She was strong. She could do anything she set her mind to.

But this was darkness. This was water. This was submersion.

And he would not make her do it if she did not want to. He would not do that to her.

After all, as much as he could sometimes hate her, as much as he could sometimes wish for her to be anyone but herself, on his good days he did still love her. He still did care about her. He still did not want to put her in a situation like this.

Thankfully, this was a good day.

Adelaide did not fight the Doctor when he pulled her aside. He was glad of that too.

"You don't have to do this," the Doctor told her, one hand hovering over her arm. "Bill and I can go into the river, I can report back to you. You don't have to do it to yourself."

Adelaide was quiet for a moment. She was searching his gaze. He wondered if she was looking for a lie. Looking for an ulterior motive. Looking for some sign of the man she'd hated.

Though, he supposed the man she hated was the man who cared most. He wondered if she hated him now.

"You'll stay safe?" her voice was so quiet that the Doctor barely heard her. Even when he did, he wondered if he'd heard her correctly.

It didn't seem like question Adelaide would ask, especially to him. Especially after everything.

"I will."

She took out her sonic pen and twisted it, pulling it in half. She gave one half, the one without the tip, to him. "So I can find you after, in case you end up somewhere strange. Or swallowed." He remembered the shark with Kazran Sardick.

He nodded. "Do you still have a TARDIS key?"

Adelaide reached for a pocket that no longer existed. "Not anymore. I believe it's sitting in my desk drawer."

He reached into his jacket pocket and handed her his key. "Be careful."

"I'm always careful."

"Stay off the ice."

She smiled. "Take notes."

He nearly laughed and, in a moment of what most would consider a lax of judgment, he took her hand and squeezed.

Adelaide did not fight it and he was so glad.

When he returned to Bill, the human looked shocked that Adelaide hadn't come back with him. "Wait, is she not coming?"

"Adelaide is...she dislikes submersion in the dark."

"She's afraid of the dark?"

The Doctor gripped his half of Adelaide's sonic. "Yes. Everyone is afraid of the dark." He remembered the Vashta Nerada and the Library, monsters hiding in the dark that Caroline had been terrified of, though she'd attempted to hide it from the strangers. He didn't like to remember the Library often.

How had he missed that Caroline wasn't just human? Donna had fit just fine into the computer, but Caroline had broken it. Why hadn't he put it together?

Even now, centuries after he'd run through the universe refusing to let go of a quiet woman he thought human, he wondered how he'd missed it. He wondered what would have been different if he never had.

"Are you afraid of the dark?" Bill asked him, drawing his attention again.

"A clever man would be." The Doctor turned to face the ice. "I'm not clever."

"Yes, you are," Bill said.

He shook his head. "I'm a foolish man, with a box, hopping around the universe with a screwdriver. Adelaide is the clever one."

He looked back to where Adelaide waited. She'd moved off of the ice, returning to where they'd found the cart of the diving suits, and looked down with her hands resting on the stone wall. If she could hear their conversation – they were just within Time Lord hearing range – she gave no reaction.

The Doctor was glad of that. He couldn't decide if she would have thanked him or cursed him for revealing her fear to Bill.

He would have to ask her later. When they had a chance to talk, properly.

When they had a chance to determine exactly how they were going to negotiate the future.

**A/N: It's in episodes like this where I really see similarities between Bill and Donna. No wonder she's having such a role in making our Time Lords realize how much they care about each other ;)**


	6. Practically

**Practically**

Adelaide hated herself. She hadn't had that thought in some time, but if it was ever going to be true, it was going to be true at that moment.

She could have handled being in the dark. She could have handled being surrounded. She could have handled being submerged.

But being in the dark, surrounded, and submerged? If she'd dared to try...Adelaide didn't want to think about where her mind would go then. In a safer situation, where they were in control, perhaps she'd have been able to try. Not here. Not now. Not when there were actual lives in danger.

Even if she acknowledged that, even if she knew that it made sense to have someone waiting on shore in case something went wrong in the ice, Adelaide still hated herself.

She would have to rely on whatever the Doctor and Bill could report to determine what the green lights were and what they wanted. Adelaide never liked relying on other people's reports. It was one of the main reasons she'd supplied to the High Council when applying for permission to travel – if they wanted her to do good work for Gallifrey, she needed to be out in the universe making her own reports, not pouring over tomes created out of stories and likely baseless in fact.

If only this mystery wasn't underwater. If only it wasn't night. If only if only if only.

Adelaide glanced back at the half of her sonic she'd taken. Ever since she'd twisted it in half, her half had been blinking steadily. It was designed to flash quicker the closer the sonic pieces were to each other.

Ideally, the Doctor and Bill would barely take twenty minutes under the ice. Likely less. Adelaide would start tracking her sonic light soon, though she would stay off the ice as much as possible.

Now, she just had to wait.

The Doctor's TARDIS key was hot in her other hand. She supposed that had to do with the fact she was also wearing her TARDIS's key. The two must react with each other.

She'd never tested that before, with her own version of the Doctor's key. The moment she'd acquired an office in St. Lukes, she'd placed his key in a desk drawer and closed it. She hadn't opened it again. Been tempted to, just to look at it again, but had never allowed herself to.

She supposed that, if the Doctor hadn't revealed himself, she would have opened that drawer soon. Missing the Doctor had just hurt so much.

Now, she had the Doctor. And his key.

There was a cracking sound in the ice and Adelaide frowned in the dark. There was a point of light a bit away from the edge of the river. For a moment, she thought it was the Doctor, though she didn't know how he could have broken through a separate point of ice from below. But then she saw a fishing line and the man responsible's face caught the light. It was the pie seller that the Doctor had both angered and stolen from earlier.

She was still watching him when two people burst out of the hole he'd cut in the ice. Adelaide might have laughed.

As it turned out, she didn't need to use her sonic to find them. She was happy about that. It meant they were safe. Adelaide felt she could breathe again, though she hadn't remembered not being able to breathe.

Adelaide reached the Doctor and Bill just as the pie seller had turned and ran. "I love your work!" the Doctor called after the man.

"The sound it made," Bill said, looking back down in the ice. "I couldn't hear you, but that noise, it's like I felt it in my bones, you know? It sounded like...like..."

"Despair," the Doctor provided. "Loneliness. A prisoner in chains."

Bill frowned in the direction where the pie seller had run off to. "That guy. He said he caught the fish himself. I bought pie off that guy. Fish pie!"

Adelaide knelt and picked up one of the fish the man had caught. It looked like an Earth angler fish. The Doctor matched her height, one hand hovering over the fish. "Oh, hello. Aren't you magnificent?" He nodded at it. "As best I could tell, there's a large creature under the ice. I believe it's what's eating the people. And it looked like a bigger version of this."

Adelaide nodded. "Like the Star Whale."

"Except that it eats the children."

"I ate that pie," Bill mumbled. "I liked that pie."

"These aren't carnivores," Adelaide reported, looking at the smaller fish's mouth. "They must be cooperating with the creature, possibly the children or other relationship along the evolutionary tree.

"What did it take for you to evolve into that?" the Doctor asked the fish.

"Or what did it take for that to de-evolve into this?"

Bill turned back to the Time Lords. "The creature, do you reckon that's what's making London so cold?"

"Very possibly."

"What kind of alien messes with the weather?"

Adelaide raised her eyebrows. "You're assuming that it's an alien."

"Of course it's alien."

"Or it's terrestrial and merely prehistoric." Adelaide looked to the Doctor. "You mentioned chains."

He nodded. "Who's keeping it in those chains?" He saw someone over her shoulder. "And perhaps our friend here can answer that."

The trio moved across the ice to the wharfside. The pie seller was attempting – and failing – at hiding behind a barrel. "Who are you? What do you want with me?"

"The coin trick. Just tell me how to do it, please!" The Doctor shook his head. "Okay. Not the time. Have you ever seen a man around here with a tattoo of a ship?" the pie seller made a face. "What's that face? Is that a no or are you against tattoos? I'm against tattoos, too. I think that we are bonding."

"We're stood by the docks, and you just asked me if I've ever seen a man with a tattoo of a ship."

The Doctor nodded. "Exactly."

Bill, however, understood the man's point. "Fair point."

"What point?"

"Look, forget the tattoos," Bill said. "Have you seen anyone acting suspiciously since the freeze?"

"Well, there's the dredgers."

"The dredgers?"

The pie seller nodded. "There's a workhouse upriver. They have men out there patrolling all hours."

|C-S|

The Doctor, Adelaide, and Bill watched the workers from behind a wall. "What are they dredging for?" Bill asked them both.

The Doctor grinned. "Let's find out."

"How are we getting in?" The Doctor held up his psychic paper. "You work for the palace?"

The Doctor glanced at it. "Haven't had that one in a while."

|C-S|

It was easier than expected to get inside the walls. The first time they were actually stopped was when the overseer spotted them. "Oi. How'd you get through here?"

The Doctor grinned at him. "Ah-ha! At last, someone in authority." He flashed the psychic paper.

The man's eyes went wide. "Oh, I do apologize, sir. Does Lord Sutcliffe know you're here?"

"Does Lord Sutcliffe know we're here," the Doctor laughed before turning to Adelaide. "Does Lord Sutcliffe know we're here?"

Adelaide raised her eyebrows. "Lord Sutcliffe insisted we come. And, as I'm sure you know, we must obey Lord Sutcliffe when he insists." She clasped her hands in front of herself. "A tour, please, if you don't mind."

The overseer nodded. "Follow me, sir, ma'am." He turned and led them further into the facility.

"Take it inside!" a man shouted, though they couldn't see him. "Same as the last batch." The best they could see, the workers were packing mud into brick shapes, though they were wearing kerchiefs.

"Why all the fuss?" Bill asked, nodding at the kerchiefs. "It's just mud from the river, isn't it?"

Adelaide wrinkled her nose. Sometimes she could curse enhanced Time Lord senses. "I suppose mud works as a classifier."

"Is this even the right place? The creature's almost a mile away."

"The creature's head is almost a mile away." Adelaide looked to the human. "Since you actually saw it, I would hope you have some understanding of the scale." Bill picked up one of the bricks, smelling it. "We're at the other end now." Bill dropped the brick and looked at her hand as though it had betrayed her.

"These men," the Doctor asked the overseer, "why do we trust them?"

"Hired them all myself, sir."

"Ah." He nodded. "Why do I trust you?"

The overseer blinked. "Sir."

"You understand how important this is, yes? It is imperative that no one discovers where the stuff goes when it leaves here."

The overseer nodded, looking eager to prove his trust to the Doctor. "Oh, I know that, sir. We use unmarked carts."

"Are they ever followed?"

"Oh no, sir."

"Have you checked this personally?"

"Oh yes, sir."

"All the way to Hampton?"

The overseer frowned. "No, to the steel mill, sir."

"Hampton is code for the steel mill."

The overseer seemed even more confused. "Code, sir?"

"Yes." The Doctor nodded. "Yes, we need to use code. Otherwise anyone could walk in here and get you blabbing like a fool."

"That's a good point, sir."

Adelaide stepped closer. "What do the men know of this substance?"

"No more than I do, ma'am."

"Yes, but you are someone who knows more than he tells," the Doctor prompted.

"I'm not one to speculate."

"But you can't help it because you're a man of intelligence."

The overseer was not skilled at hiding his smirk at the complement. "They won't let us smoke in here, so I assume it's fuel. Fuel for the furnaces, sir."

"Excellent reasoning," Adelaide said, blinking. "Lord Sutcliffe appreciates an enquiring mind."

The overseer nodded. "Well, I keep my ear to the ground, you know."

"And what is the ground saying these days?"

The overseer leaned closer. "That this stuff burns a thousand times longer than coal?"

The Doctor nodded. "Very good."

"Hotter, too. Hotter than they can measure."

"Excellent!" the Doctor pointed at him. "First class."

"I'm right, aren't I, sir?"

"Oh, there's no stopping you. You keep this up, you won't be working in this yard for very long."

The overseer rolled his shoulders, prideful. "Oh, you think not?"

"I can almost guarantee it."

The overseer stepped closer again. "You know what else they say? They say it even burns underwater."

Bill's eyes widened. "No sh..." the human was cut off by a horse.

|C-S|

The Sutcliffe House was as grand as Adelaide expected. Now that they had his name, it had been quite easy to find. Apparently, he was well known in the city.

"So," Bill said, looking up at it with her hands on her hips. "This guy has a pet monster that turns people into fuel and we're just rocking up at his door?"

The Doctor nodded at the house. "That's his door, this is us knocking." They moved up the stairs to the door and the Doctor rang the bell. "If we're going to stop him, we need to know where he started."

"Meaning?"

"Which planet."

That time, Bill and Adelaide frowned at him together. "Which planet?" Adelaide asked.

Before the Doctor could answer, a manservant opened the door and the Doctor flashed his psychic paper again, grinning. The manservant ushered them in and into a drawing-room to wait for Lord Sutcliffe, taking the psychic paper with him to show the lord.

Once they were alone, Adelaide faced the Doctor again, though the man was busy adjusting an orrery. "You honestly believe Sutcliffe is an alien?"

"Possibly."

"Because the creature is an alien," Bill said.

Adelaide glanced at her. "The creature is more likely terrestrial than alien." Back to the Doctor. "Why do you think Sutcliffe is an alien?"

"It appears to be producing fuel suitable for interstellar travel."

"Or for powering an England dreaming ahead at the end of the Industrial Revolution."

The Doctor turned from the orrery, looking to the human. "Either way, Bill, I need you to leave the talking to me."

"Why?"

"Because you have a temper."

Bill shrugged. "Oh okay, well, I lost it a tiny bit."

"You're about to meet a man, alien or otherwise, for whom human beings are raw material," the Doctor explained. "Who grinds up children for profit. What we are here for is one thing. Information. We get that with diplomacy and tact. Charm, if necessary. I am responsible for the charm, Adelaide is responsible for information management."

Bill sunk onto a nearby armchair. "Okay. I get it."

"Always remember, Bill. Passion fights, but reason wins."

Adelaide glanced at the Doctor. "You'd do good to remember that as well, Doctor."

He opened his mouth to speak again, but Sutcliffe entered before he could. "Doctor Disco, from the Fairford Club!" Sutcliffe said, looking only at the Time Lord. "Obviously, one aspires to membership, but to actually be considered for..." his gaze fell on Bill and his expression immediately changed to a grimace, surging forward. "Who...who let this creature in here? On your feet, girl, in the presence of your betters."

The Doctor tapped Sutcliffe on the shoulder and, when the man turned, punched him very hard in the jaw. The man went down fast.

Adelaide was barely shocked. Despite what the Doctor had said, she knew the Time Lord too well to think he would begin relying on charm and reason instead of passion. Yes, he was generally more skilled at negotiation than she was, better understanding necessary changes in direction than her own approach of just staying polite, but he also tended to let his emotions get the better of him.

"He's human," the Doctor said, shaking the fist he'd used. "Thirty-one years of age. Low on iron."

Bill nodded, standing. "Yeah, that was pretty convincing racism for an extra-terrestrial."

"My thoughts exactly." Larger men entered the room, acting essentially as Sutcliffe's personal guard. "Oh, hello," the Doctor said, smiling at them. "Can I just say, this is very unlike me. I don't normally do this."

"Yeah, he was aiming for charming."

The Doctor nodded. "Basically."

|C-S|

By the time Sutcliffe regained consciousness, the men had all three time travelers' hands behind their backs, tied and secured. Normally, Adelaide may have said it was a bit extreme, especially for her and Bill, but the Doctor had punched someone.

Sutcliffe rubbed his jaw as he stared at them. "Well, you're not from the Fairford Club."

"No, we are not from the Fairford Club. Are you aware of where the creature in the river is from?" Adelaide asked. Even if the Doctor was best at questioning, she was not going to let him take control again.

"Nowhere!" Sutcliffe flung up a hand. "It's always been there. The secret's been passed won in the family since, I don't know when. As far back as records go."

"Indulge my curiosity. Do you keep a record of how many it's killed? Even a rough estimate?"

"Please," Sutcliffe waved a hand. "People know the ice is dangerous, yet they will insist on their festivities. That's hardly my fault."

"This is the biggest Frost Fair in decades, is it not? And you're responsible."

Bill frowned at her. "He is?"

"The man holding the Doctor has a tattoo on his left hand. Added, Sutcliffe is the wealthiest man in London. He's responsible for the circus performers, the elephant, everything that truly draws the crowd."

Sutcliffe shrugged. "I made the most of the situation. It's the first proper freeze it's caused in years."

"Why?" Bill asked. "Production down, huh? Not enough people dying?"

"Bill..." Adelaide warned, but Sutcliffe spoke first.

"Girl, you show the ignorance of all your kind. Without that beast, my mills would rely on coal mines, and men die in coal mines all the time."

The Doctor shook his head. "I preferred it when you were alien."

Sutcliffe looked to him. "When I was what?"

"Well, that explained the lack of humanity. What makes you so sure that your life is worth more than those people out there on the ice? Is it the money? The accident of birth that puts you inside the big, fancy house?"

Sutcliffe bristled. "I help move this country forward. I move this Empire forward."

"Human progress isn't measured by industry, it's measured by the value you place on a life. An unimportant life. A life without privilege. The boy who died on the river, that boy's value is your value. That's what defines an age. That's what defines a species."

Sutcliffe was quiet for a moment. "What a beautiful speech. The rhythm and...and vocabulary, quite outstanding. It's enough to move anyone with an ounce of compassion." He grinned. "So, it's really not your day, is it?" He looked to his men. "If they know about the beast, then others must, too."

"That is not sound logic," Adelaide mumbled.

"We bring the plan forward," Sutcliffe insisted.

"When, sir?" one of his men asked.

"Now! In daylight."

|C-S|

The trio was shoved inside a carriage to be transported back to the Frost Fair. The Time Lords ended up next to each other opposite Bill.

The human was staring at the Doctor with what looked to be a mixture of pride and wonder. "No time for outrage," Bill said, repeating the Doctor's previous statement. "You've never had time for anything else, right?"

"Don't be smug. Smug belongs to me."

Bill smiled. "Are you really two thousand years old?"

"Why?"

"I just wanted to know how long it takes before you can make a speech like the one you just made. It was worth the wait." She looked to Adelaide. "How old are you? Two thousand?"

"Approximately."

|C-S|

When the carriage finally came to a stop, the trio were pulled out by the man Sutcliffe had sent. "Come on, out," he prompted, pushing them into a tent. "Get in there! Sit down and shut up." He made them sit and adjusted how their hands were tied, situating them around the main pole, beneath a wire panel. Bill and the Doctor were placed back to back, with Adelaide between them, facing front.

Bill eyed some of the barrels she could see, which were connected to the wire panel above Adelaide. "It could be rum. Rum came in barrels."

"Notice everything," Adelaide said. "It's a type of rocket fuel that they're repurposing as explosive."

"It's a little reckless, don't you think?" the Doctor asked, turning his head as Sutcliffe ducked into the tent. "Half the fair disappears into the river, the secret of your success won't be a secret anymore."

Sutcliffe nodded. "Hardly. The city will pause to mourn a fireworks display gone tragically awry, and the creature will be fed. By spring, this will be a footnote in history. That is progress." He leaned out, looking at the crowds. "They're bringing the elephant out presently. We won't get bigger crowds than that, so make sure you're off the ice by noon."

Bill frowned. "Noon? There's no way you can keep us here that long. We'll just scream our heads off."

Sutcliffe didn't respond, leaving them. Adelaide leaned her head closer to Bill. "I trust you were capable of hearing him when he mentioned an elephant and crowds? No one will hear us scream."

Sutcliffe's follower grinned at that, clearly agreeing, and left the tent as well, though they could see his silhouette standing guard.

"I think my sonic is easier to reach," the Doctor told Adelaide, attempting to jostle it from his pocket. Her response was to bend to the side, allowing him the proper space to dislodge the sonic, only he sent it too far. Adelaide stretched her legs out until she managed to catch the sonic with her foot, sending it skidding back across the ice to their hands. "Yes, thank you," he said, grabbing it and aiming it at their ropes.

"Um...Doctor?" Bill said, making Adelaide turn.

A green light was moving towards them. "The fish must be drawn by the sonic frequency," she guessed. "It's how they choose their victims."

"What are you doing?" Bill asked, having never properly seen either Time Lord using their sonic.

"Just...just a little more."

The man outside the tent burst in a second after a larger rush of the fish below the ice, brow furrowed. "What are you..." he bent down, reaching between their hands to grab the sonic. "Give me that!" Immediately, the fish circled him. "What the..."

"Turn it off," the Doctor prompted, nodding towards the device. "There's a button on the side." The man searched for it. "Here! Give it here!" On instinct, the man tossed it to the Doctor as the fish concentration grew. The Doctor, hands already free, caught it just as the man fell through the ice. "Afraid it has a knack to it." He turned and held out a hand to help Adelaide stand. For once, the Time Lady took it, the two holding their gaze.

Something needed to be done. Just like the Vardi, some interference was needed. Some protection.

They turned to look at Bill in unison. "Bill." The human didn't look. She was still staring at the spot of ice where the man had been swallowed. "Miss Potts? We need you with us."

"I...I..."

"Things to do, Bill. Decisions to make." The Doctor helped her stand. "What are we going to do about Tiny?"

Bill shook her head. "Tiny?"

"The creature. The lock-less monster. The not-so-little mermaid. Are we just going to leave her down there?"

Bill's eyes widened. "We can't set her free. She could burst up out of the water and eat a hundred people right off of Southbank! She could eat half of London!"

Adelaide nodded. "She might. It's a risk."

"So, what do you want to do, Bill?"

Bill looked between them. "We already know the answers. Why are you even asking?"

"We don't know the answers," the Doctor corrected. "Only idiots know the answers. But if your future is built on the suffering of that creature, what's your future worth?"

"Why is that up to me?"

"Because it is not up to us," Adelaide told her. "This is your people, your planet. We have provided you as much information as we can acquire, but it is your decision."

The Doctor nodded. "I serve at the pleasure of the human race and, right now, that's you. Give me an order. Not long till noon." Bill was silent, her mouth hanging open. "I need an order."

"There is no right choice. But it is one you must make."

Bill looked near tears, but she looked prepared for a fight. There was something comforting in that. "Save her."

The Doctor nodded at the tent. "I'll take care of this. You and Adelaide, you get everyone off the ice." He looked to Adelaide and the Time Lady nodded.

She reached into her dress again and took out her sonic, twisting it in half again.

|C-S|

It was surprisingly effective to have the children get the people they'd gotten onto the ice back off of it. As it happens, a group of children running around shouting about ice melting and people falling through was enough to frighten people for the shores. But the majority of people didn't care about the worry of children.

Adelaide checked her half of her sonic every few minutes for the Doctor's signal that he'd finished below the ice.

Bill rushed up to her as Adelaide checked it, grabbing Adelaide's shoulder. "They're going to do it now."

Adelaide spun. "Ensure the children are off. I'll find the Doctor."

Bill nodded and rushed off to find where she'd stationed the orphans. Adelaide pressed the sonic to signal to the Doctor, alerting him to a change. Thankfully, he responded in kind almost immediately.

There was a rumble beneath the ice, but nothing broke on the surface. A moment later, there was something stronger. "Bill?" Adelaide called. "We need to go. Now!"

"Coming!"

Adelaide took that as an answer. She turned until the sonic signal was strongest and rushed in that direction, picking up the pace once she heard the ice beginning to crack.

"Doctor!" Bill called from behind her, spotting the Time Lord as he appeared at the edge of the ice, still mostly wearing his diving suit. "You did it! She's free!"

Adelaide reached the Doctor first and he pulled her onto the dock, allowing them both to lift Bill as the cracks finally reached them. Bill didn't stop for long, rushing to watch as the creature breached the surface of the broken ice. "Go!" Bill cheered. "Where will she go?"

"Somewhere cold, I imagine," the Doctor smiled. "Hopefully, she's smart enough to avoid you lot now."

Adelaide frowned at the bit of the creature she could see. "I recognize it. Is there a section of Earth called Greenland?"

Bill's eyes widened. "What if we just like...doomed Greenland?"

"Greenland itself was fine," Adelaide said.

The Doctor still shrugged. "We can still check in on Greenland, just in case."

Bill looked down at the creature. "How long is she?" Before either Time Lord could answer, the creature splashed them with its flipper. "Ah." She moved to the edge of where they stood, watching as the creature breached beyond the London Bridge. "Can you hear that?"

The Time Lords looked to each other and remembered the song of the Star Whale.

|C-S|

Altering Sutcliffe's will was the Doctor's idea but, to his surprise, Adelaide didn't fight him on the idea. She didn't directly help him, but she did advise him on his handwriting choice.

Bill led the orphans into the dining room once they arrived. The table had been filled with food. "Go on. Eat as much as you like."

The Doctor looked up, focusing on the boy. "Er, you, boy! Remind me, what's your name?"

The boy responded, mouth full, but even the Time Lords couldn't understand him.

Adelaide raised her eyebrows. "Swallow before you speak. That will be important."

"Perry," Kitty told them. "His name's Perry. Why?"

"Apparently, Lord Sutcliffe's long-lost heir can't be a girl," Bill told her. All of the orphans froze, mouths and hands full of food, to stare at the Doctor as he grinned.

|C-S|

"What about the butterfly effect?" Bill asked the Time Lords once they'd returned to TARDIS, beginning the travel properly back to Bill's Earth period.

"I told you earlier," Adelaide said, "time has methods of maintaining itself, especially when humans are responsible."

Bill shook her head. "We must have changed something. I mean, people saw a monster in the Thames."

The TARDIS landed and Adelaide checked the scanner before nodding, allowing the three of them to exit. Bill was the first one out. "Well, it doesn't look any different."

The Doctor moved to his desk, picking up a pile of papers, as Nardole entered with his tray of tea. Bill pulled out her phone to search the internet.

"All right," Nardole said, not looking up at them yet. "There you go. There's your tea. I put a bit of coffee in it, as well, just to give it some flavor. See, it's much better when you stick to your oath." He looked up and noticed their distinctly period clothing. "Oh sir, no...this is unacceptable. This is beyond unacceptable. This is naughty."

The Doctor pointed at him. "Language."

Bill shook her head. "I don't get it. London, 1814. Monster, sea creature, serpent, really, really big fish. Nothing."

"Sir, you said you wouldn't be going off-world."

Adelaide restrained her smile. "These aren't off-world clothes, Nardole."

"Not you too!" he looked exasperated. "You said you'd be coming back to your office!"

The Doctor gestured to the room. "Look, here I am. I'm in my office." He picked up a cup. "I'm drinking my tea, my specially chosen tea clothes."

"I don't understand. How could it not have been headline news?"

"Never underestimate the collective human ability to overlook the inexplicable." The Doctor shrugged. "Also, the Frost Fair involved a lot of day drinking."

Adelaide pulled out her own phone. "Let me try." After a moment, she turned her phone for Bill to see. "Papers tend to miss the true headline."

"Lord Sutcliffe drowns in snap thaw. Shock as steel fortune is passed to street urchin!"

Nardole moved closer to the Doctor, trying to whisper for only the Time Lord could hear. "Sir. We need to talk. Your oath..."

"Give us a coin."

"What?"

"The new Lord Sutcliffe was found starving on London's streets," Bill continued. "The inheritance was contested, everyone got super mad, blah, blah, blah, urchin boy deemed legitimate." Bill laughed. "Oh my God, it worked! You did it. You saved them!"

Adelaide took her phone back. "It was you, Bill. Your decision."

"Sir..."

"Give me a coin. We'll toss for it." The Doctor glanced up at Adelaide. "Heads, my TARDIS stays put. Tails, you leave me alone."

|C-S|

Nardole went off in a huff after the coin flip, mumbling something about checking on the Vault. Bill looked ecstatic for the idea of another trip, but the fact the Time Lords went silent when Nardole left was enough for her to understand that now wasn't the time for traveling.

Now, two Time Lords who'd hoped to and dreaded never seeing each other again needed to talk to each other.

Adelaide took the seat meant for visitors opposite the Doctor's desk, picking up the cup of tea that Nardole had brought, though she didn't drink. "I hope you don't mind that I'm surprised. You let Bill make the decision."

"It's her planet. Her right." He studied her. He hadn't even bothered to pick up his cup. "What would you have done, if you were alone?"

"I would have waited for the TARDIS to finish its scan for immediate threats in the surrounding. Once I realized it was under the ice, I would have attempted to use the TARDIS to identify the creature and its species, as well as its situation."

"And then? How would you have found Sutcliffe?"

"Because the creature was clearly trapped, I would have spoken with the crowds. Found those acting strange. Followed the same path we had to Sutcliffe. If I'd determined that he was taking advantage of the creature and posed an immediate threat, I would likely have used my TARDIS to transport the creature somewhere safe."

"So you would have helped."

Adelaide nodded. "You may phrase it as such, yes."

"And you would have been okay with it."

She nodded again. "Because it was not interfering with time."

He raised his eyebrows. "You told Bill that her actions were already established in the timeline, but we both know that was a lie." Adelaide was thankful that he didn't then also begin what seemed his embedded pattern of how lying was rude. "Traveling in time at all has a high chance to alter events."

"There is a difference between altering events accidentally by your natural presence, and intentionally changing something you already know the outcome of." She held his gaze. "The Time Lord Victorious is wrong. Just because we have the power to do something does not mean we have the right to do it. If anything, it means we have the responsibility to restrain ourselves."

"What a good protector you are."

"It is not the role I ever desired to hold, but it is the one I must." She placed the cup down again. "If we want to travel together more, if we want to try this again, we need...boundaries. Rules. Things we never had before."

"Establishing things now won't matter in the moment."

She nodded, conceding the point. "But it matters now."

He was quiet for a moment. "You want me to stop interfering."

"With time, yes. Leave time to itself. But I will not force you to stop saving lives, solving problems." She wondered if he noticed the bracelet she still wore. "It is why I fell in love with you."

"But..."

"But if I tell you that you have to stop, before you continue, you must try to explain it to me. I have to understand why you have to do something before I can let myself allow you. I may not agree, I will allow that, but I have to understand."

The Doctor nodded. Adelaide was glad. "And if you are refusing, you must explain why we can't interfere. Both sides of the situation."

She smiled. "Deal." They both knew that this conversation, though important, was only the beginning of the one they truly needed to have. The Time Lords had a history. They needed to establish how it would affect their present. "Are we friends, then?"

"If you would like to be." He wasn't smiling. "If you are able to be."

"If we're going to be traveling together, I believe that would best." Another moment of silence. Even on Gallifrey, it was not required that Aligned Time Lords maintain any type of romantic relationship, with Alignment so common that a myriad of relationships was common. But when Time Lords were Aligned so strongly that it was said that stars sang when their paths crossed, when they had countless fixed events dotted through their timeline...the ideal was romance. The ideal was love. Not...whatever this had become. Not whatever had made Adelaide miss and hate the Doctor so strongly. "One of us should explain to Bill about our history. At least, some of it. To ensure she understands. You know her best."

He nodded. "I will try."

"Thank you." That time, when she began to smile, he matched it, though it was small. "When we travel terrestrially, we can use my TARDIS. It hasn't been off-planet in so long, I want to do it in small jumps." His eyes brightened at the idea of seeing another TARDIS. "But, before even that, before I show you..." his smile dimmed. "What is in the Vault, Doctor? What is your oath?"

The Doctor did not want to tell her. But he did.

She was thankful for that.

**A/N: Quite a positive step for our Time Lords Victorious. Who would have known the wonders of proper communication! ;)**


	7. Interest

**Interest**

If Adelaide was going to be honest, she had no idea if she liked or disliked Missy. They had met, in total, four times. During the first, she'd helped a child reborn as a weapon escape a war. During the second, she'd been trapped in a human body, watched the Master take over every person on Earth and attempt to bring Gallifrey back before sacrificing themselves to save everyone. During the third, Missy had tried to turn the Doctor into the man Adelaide feared and knew him to be. During the fourth, she'd tried to help, tried to show the Time Lords the truth of duality.

Merely from those encounters, Missy would have been Adelaide's friend. If she was working purely off how they had interacted in the past, she would have a small issue with the Master's attempt to take over the world, but that likely would not have overpowered their initial close friendship, for the pair had been friends, even if just for the small time they'd spent together running from the war.

But Adelaide had heard stories from the Doctor, particularly after the second time. She knew the Master's true history, the Master's true impact on the universe. The Master's true adoration of entropy and cruelty.

She thought she had an understanding of her opinion on the other last Time Lord. She thought she knew that she was, for the most part, indifferent. Thankful for the Master's role in helping her escape the war, regretful of her part in helping someone so destructive back into the universe. Curious about Missy's newfound obsession with revealing the truth of the Doctor's character to her, as though Missy actively desired the split that had occurred.

But then the Doctor had explained that Missy was in the Vault. Then, the Doctor had explained that Missy had expressed interest in turning good.

If anything, it made Adelaide feel guiltier, if guilty was the proper word.

Missy was already someone who interfered without question. Turning good simply meant that the interference would be directed closer to the Doctor's tendencies, towards helping. And if that's what good was, if that's what goodness meant...what did that make Adelaide?

Yes, she'd never been overly concerned if she was a good woman or not. It wasn't something that mattered to her. She wasn't cruel. She was true, she was impartial, she wanted knowledge. She may not have been good by the Doctor's definition, but she was not bad.

Was goodness what Adelaide was meant to be striving for? Was this, her current state, the true incorrect one? Was the mess of emotions and interference and incompatibility that had been her previous regeneration actually what she was meant to be? Was she kidding herself now, forcing herself to be something that was, ultimately, destructive?

Adelaide didn't like to think about that, although she knew she must. She already fought with herself in this regeneration, trying to balance wanting to help and wanting to hide. She didn't want to also come to the conclusion that she had been wrong in all of her regenerations.

It was different to go and see the Vault and know that Missy was inside. The Doctor and Adelaide decided to walk there so that Adelaide could properly see the defenses from the outside. "The door is set..." the next word caught in the Doctor's throat, but he forced it out. "For friends only."

Adelaide looked it over. "Then it is quite good we've established that we are friends." She didn't look at him, didn't let herself move closer to him. Didn't let herself touch him. Didn't let herself admit that she actually wanted to. "Friends only."

"Yes." His voice was quiet. "Friends only."

The vault itself was dark, but the idea of approaching Missy was enough to distract Adelaide.

If Missy was aware that Adelaide was there, the other Time Lady did not signify that. The vault was silent.

"I trust you heard us earlier," the Doctor called to Missy, moving past Adelaide to the vault door. "Adelaide is here." Silence. "I've told her that you're here." Silence. He glanced back at Adelaide, frowning. "She's not normally this quiet."

"She'll have to share you now. Perhaps she's throwing a tantrum."

The teasing was enough to earn them a knock of acknowledgment.

"Hello, Missy." Another knock.

The Doctor turned around properly. "Would you like to go in?"

"Is it wise to open the door?"

"Nardole would advise against it."

"And you?" Adelaide already knew the answer, but there was something beautiful about the grin that blossomed on the Doctor's face. It almost hurt to crush it. "I want to speak with Nardole about the situation first."

As she expected, the Doctor's face fell. "You don't trust me?"

"I do. But he is far more dedicated to the task than you. It would be beneficial to understand it from his perspective." She looked to the door, although Missy couldn't see her. "I'm sorry, Missy, but I trust you understand." There was a knock. "Thank you for showing me, Doctor."

"I said I would."

She let the response hang in the air.

|C-S|

The next time the Doctor saw Bill, he knew that he needed to explain his and Adelaide's history to the human. It had been established that the human was not going to stop asking them about it until she was told something, and he knew that Adelaide would far prefer that he tell her the truth.

He just hoped that they had the same understanding of their relationship.

The Doctor was sitting at his desk when Bill arrived, having just sent Nardole off to give them some privacy. If Bill knew what this conversation was going to be about, she didn't show it.

"So..." Bill took her typical seat. "Are you two a...thing? Were you a thing?"

The Doctor made himself stay seated. He wished he'd made Adelaide stay with him. She would have been able to help. "It's complicated."

Bill raised her eyebrows, scoffing. "Yeah, that'd be a word for it."

He frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well..." Bill leaned forward. "Adelaide said you have a 'history'. But she refused to tell me what that history was."

"We needed to determine how we stand now before we told you about our past."

Bill nodded. "How'd you two meet?"

"It's complicated." Bill opened her mouth to speak again, but the Doctor cut her off. "When we met, Adelaide had used a machine to turn herself into a human in order to escape a war. She called herself Caroline Attwater. We ran into each other while investigating Adipose Industries. We were...drawn together."

"Sexually?"

"No." He spoke sharper than he meant to, but the Doctor couldn't help himself. "There are points in our lives when we will always meet, regardless of the choices we make in between. Adipose Industries was one of those moments. Our people called it Aligning."

"Did you realize what she was?"

"No, the machine she used hides itself from everyone, even the person it transformed. But I was still interested in her. Caroline was quiet, but she was observant. Scientific. We, and another friend, a human, traveled together. Caroline and I grew closer. Too close. Our other friend left, but Caroline..." he sucked in a breath. "I couldn't let Caroline go away.

"When Adelaide originally ran from the war, she ran with someone else. We encountered that someone else and they were who revealed that Caroline wasn't a human. She became Adelaide again. But she was...she was uncomfortable. The machine she'd used wasn't entirely effective, it had let too much of Adelaide into Caroline. Eventually, Adelaide began to think that it let too much of Caroline back into Adelaide. She was too human."

Bill frowned. "You say that like it's a terrible thing."

"To Adelaide, it was. We had what you would call a relationship then, more romantic than we'd ever dared before. But she hid her worries from me. I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know what. Eventually, it built and she was forced to tell me everything. After that...we became friends again, or, at least, we tried to be."

"It didn't work."

He nodded. "No, it didn't. We grew close again. We were happy, really happy. And then..." he swallowed. "Something Adelaide and I have always struggled with is a fundamental disagreement in our philosophies for traveling. I think that we have a right, a responsibility to interfere and help where we can. Adelaide doesn't." He had to give her perspective the respect it was due. He had to do that for Adelaide when she wasn't here to speak for herself. "Adelaide believes that the universe is larger and stronger than anything that lives in it, even us. That though we play at understanding it, we know nothing. We were able to manage that disagreement, for a time. But then...it reached a point where we couldn't. A point where Adelaide refused to do anything to mess with time, even save her own life, and a point where I was willing to do anything to save a life, even destroy time. We had to separate."

Bill was quiet for a few seconds. "And that's where you were when you ran into each other here? That separation?"

"Yes."

"You still care about her, though?"

"Deeply." His throat felt tight.

"Do you love her?"

It was the Doctor's turn to go silent. He had to be honest. Adelaide would want him to be honest. "Yes. I loved Caroline, and I have loved Adelaide for centuries. I still do."

It felt wonderful to say. The Doctor hadn't expected that level of relief. Even on his bad days, even when he hated her, Adelaide...Adelaide was beautiful. Adelaide was lovely.

He still loved her.

"Thank you for telling me this," Bill said, moving forward more in her seat.

"It needed to be said."

She smiled, though it was small, and let the silence hang for a moment before speaking again. "You know that I've been looking for a new place to live recently?" He nodded. "Can you use your ship to help me move?"

"I have an even better idea."

|C-S|

When Bill requested a TARDIS's assistance in moving, it was actually the Doctor who had the idea that they use Adelaide's TARDIS. Not only was it exactly what she had described, a terrestrial jump, but it would also give the Doctor the chance to see her ship.

He was far more excited about that concept than Bill.

Adelaide tried to restrain her pride as she brought the Doctor to her office. It was smaller than his, a similar enough style if with only one level, but it was neat. Far neater than his.

The Doctor frowned as he examined the room. "Where's your TARDIS?"

"My Chameleon Circuit never broke," Adelaide reminded him, moving towards the door that held her TARDIS. It looked just like a closet, hidden between bookshelves in the back corner of her office. She passed by her desk to collect her copy of the Doctor's TARDIS key. Once her own TARDIS was unlocked, she stepped aside to let the Doctor see.

He approached it slowly.

A few of the walls of her TARDIS were still flickering with her latest writing, some organization of old research she'd recently uncovered in the depths of her TARDIS databanks, but they cycled to plain white as the Doctor approached.

"Hello," her interface said, appearing beside the console, and made the Doctor jump. Adelaide had to stifle a laugh. "I am the interface of this TARDIS. I am here to assist you in any way possible."

The Doctor's eyes went wide. "You made your TARDIS..."

"Technically, you did it," Adelaide said, nodding to her interface.

"In my repairs after I was recovered, I located a patch in my index that allows my pilot to make use of a voice interface for ease of communication. The patch was signed with Who, originally from a Type 40 ship."

Adelaide moved to stand beside the Doctor. "You never told me that you developed a voice interface."

"It never worked quite right."

The interface nodded. It's face still resembled Adelaide's first regeneration, although she swore the eyes had turned a closer shade of green to the center of her TARDIS console. The green that had peppered the Doctor's timeline, marking their fixed events. "I adapted it to suit my higher capabilities. I am closer tapped into the heart of the ship."

The Doctor turned, looking around the room more properly. "It's so...white."

Adelaide nodded. "Yes, Doctor. And clean."

"Would you like me to change the color?" the interface asked. Adelaide swore it was restraining a smile.

"No, thank you," Adelaide told it, moving past the Doctor to the console. "Do you have Bill's address?" The Doctor nodded and Adelaide gestured to the console. "If you should like, you can help pilot. The controls are approximately the same, you should be fine."

"I've piloted a Type 70 TARDIS before."

"Really?"

"Theoretically."

"That doesn't count." She looked over to the interface, which was now next to her. "Can you get the address from him?"

"Of course." The interface's eyes shimmered for a moment, turning a shade closer to black. "We are prepared for flight."

Adelaide flicked the switch and watched the Doctor's face brighten, watched him return to the idiot with a box that he always claimed to be. She'd lost that in the Time Lord Victorious. It was beautiful to see it return. To see him truly become the man both she and Caroline had fallen for.

The flight was steady, easy. Especially with the Doctor nearby to flip a few switches for her. Her TARDIS was designed for a single pilot, but the console was still round, designed for movement. Adelaide tried not to seem too proud at the comparison between her ship and the Doctor's.

Once they arrived at Bill's old room, Adelaide's TARDIS materialized around the human's collection of boxes. The human had, as instructed, piled them into two stacks. Adelaide went to her door to open it once they'd settled. "Hello, Bill." They'd warned the human that they'd be using Adelaide's TARDIS instead. "Are you ready?"

Bill nodded. "Thanks for helping." Adelaide knew that the Doctor had already spoken with Bill about their history, though the Time Lord had neglected to share the specifics of what that conversation had entailed.

Adelaide glanced at her TARDIS's outside as she moved to the side to let Bill enter. The TARDIS had returned to its blank shell, not bothering to use the Chameleon circuit now. "It's no problem, Bill." When she ducked back in, she was glad to see that the interface had vanished. Bill likely would have been fine, but it would be easier to introduce Bill to the interface later.

"You should hire this out, like a removal service," Bill said, waving at the Doctor as he moved towards her piles of belongings.

"Removals?" the Doctor made a face. "Bill, we're Time Lords." He picked up a stuffed bear from the pile.

Bill looked to Adelaide, already knowing that she was more likely to answer a question easily, though both Time Lords could be blunt. "Time Lord? What's that, your job?"

"Partly. But it is mostly a term for adults of our species – Gallifreyan."

"Doesn't sound like a species. Sounds posh, like," Bill put on an accent, "yes, my lord. Doff my cap."

The Doctor shrugged. "Oh, well, that's why we gave it up. Ran away. Both of us. Though, not together."

Bill stopped at the console. "Time Lords," she repeated. "That's hilarious. Do you wear robes and big hats?" Both Time Lords grimaced at the memory, but it seemed to be Adelaide's face that made Bill let out a laugh.

"No," the Doctor said. "Big collars mostly." He gave Bill back the bear.

"Postcode?" Adelaide asked, going up to her console.

"What, just a postcode? You don't use a multi-dimensional space-time coordinate?"

"It does. But that requires your postcode." She gestured to the console. "Input it."

Bill hurried to do so. "Do you sleep here?"

"If I need to." Bill stepped back. "Finished?"

"Yeah."

Adelaide looked over to the Doctor. "Want to help again?" the man didn't have to speak for Adelaide to know the answer.

Bill stepped back so that she would be more out of the way. "'If I need to'? What does that mean?"

The Doctor grinned. "Sleep's for tortoises."

"Not Time Lords? Or, not Gallifreyans?" Bill spoke the longer word a bit slower, though she pronounced it just fine.

"No! Unless we've regenerated or had a big lunch."

Bill's eyes widened. "Regenerated?"

Adelaide looked to the Doctor. "Regeneration didn't come up?"

He waved a hand. "Oh, the questions, the questions, the questions. Just remember Time Lords. That's enough for now."

Adelaide looked at Bill. "Ask as many questions as you'd like. Always question. Notice everything." The TARDIS settled. "We've arrived."

Bill blinked. "That was steady."

"The Doctor's TARDIS requires six pilots and he tries to manage it with one or two. Mine is meant for one, and we had two."

They all moved towards Bill's boxes together, each taking one as they left Adelaide's TARDIS. The home they'd arrived at was, in all honesty, much larger than what Adelaide had expected. Bill had made it quite clear that she and her friends, one of which was Shireen, were struggling for money. This house was old, but it was large. And it creaked. Settled.

"We can use the TARDIS, take it all to your room," the Doctor suggested, speaking first.

Bill turned to him. "Firstly, I don't know which one my room is. And secondly, that's weird and I want to make a good impression."

"Understandable," Adelaide cut in. "I can remove everything from the TARDIS and you can take it in yourself."

"Thanks for the lift, though," Bill said, grinning.

Adelaide turned to the Doctor, avoiding looking at the house. She knew that if she looked at the house for too long, like he was, she would be attracted by the mystery and it would be hard to just leave Bill here. But they had to respect Bill's boundaries. They couldn't solve this mystery. "Doctor?"

"That's your house?" the Doctor said.

Bill nodded. "Sharing, yeah. Six of us, renting."

"I thought you were students?"

"Yeah. I was like, 'what's the catch', but, actually, it's fine, just a bit draughty."

"Draughty?" the Doctor licked his finger and tested the breeze, even as the leaves on the trees behind him were motionless.

"I meant draughty inside."

The Doctor nodded and looked to Adelaide and seemed invigorated when she didn't say anything. "Interesting. We'll help you in." He started towards the house.

"No, no, no, it's fine. You really don't have to. It's not..."

"Really not a problem."

Bill started after him. "No, wait, honestly. Um, if you just...er...if you just go and do history or science or whatever..." But the Doctor was already out of earshot. Bill spun to look at Adelaide in desperation.

"It's mysterious," Adelaide offered and, if Bill hadn't been holding a box, the human would have thrown her hands in the air. Adelaide was the reasonable one, the respectful one, the one who didn't interfere in a companion's life just because their house was strange.

But the house was strange. Even Adelaide couldn't help herself.

She and Bill caught up to the Doctor just as he entered the front hallway. The moment she was inside the house, Adelaide knew something was off, but she forced it away. Thankfully, Shireen was the first person the Doctor encountered, though the human saw Bill first. "Hey. Where have you been?" she looked up to the Time Lords. "Professor Noble? The Doctor?"

The Doctor nodded, pushing more into the house. "Yes. Hi. Can I get past?"

Bill moved out of the way. "Er...yes, they're just helping with the move."

"Helping?"

"He's just my..."

"Friend," the Doctor said, at the same time Bill finished with, "grandfather. She's his friend."

The Doctor frowned. "Wait, I don't look old enough to..."

"To hold that box for very long," Bill said, taking the box and putting it on the table. "There. Me."

Bill's other housemates walked up. Adelaide recognized a few of them from seeing them around campus with Shireen. "How exciting is this?" one of the women said, smiling.

"Oh, wow. Doctor. Legend." One of the men raised his hand for a high-five, which the Doctor only stared at.

"He's my grandfather, she's his friend."

"Hey, Professor Noble," the other boy said, grinning at her. "You dating the Doctor?"

"No," both Time Lords spoke sharply, clearly shocking all of the humans, including Bill.

"All right, grandfather, Adelaide," Bill said, turning to face them properly. "You really can go now, though. Thanks for the help." She gave them a thumbs up. "Job done."

Adelaide nodded at the humans. "Goodbye." She took the Doctor's arm as he turned, forcing the Time Lord to leave the building. Once they were outside, the Doctor made them stop again.

"We can't leave her there."

"It's not our place."

"Why not?" Adelaide blinked at the question. "We agreed to question each other in moments like this. That's my question. You tell me why it's not our place, I'll tell you why it is."

Adelaide stepped away from him. "It is Bill's private life. She asked us to leave and step away. We have to respect that decision, even if we don't agree with it."

"She could be in danger."

Adelaide glanced up at the house. "It's just a house."

"You can't believe that." He shook his head. "You're far too clever to fall for that."

"And you're far too foolish for..."

"For what?" He held her gaze. "I know that Bill told us to leave, but I can't leave her here. I can't let something happen to her."

Adelaide let the rest of his statement hang in the air. "And if us interfering is what leads to something happening to her?"

"I am willing to take that chance. I can't do nothing." He stepped closer. "If something goes wrong, if anyone gets hurt, I will take responsibility."

"I can't do that to you."

"And I can't let you blame yourself for not stopping me." He looked like he wanted to take her hand. "Please, Adelaide. We can't leave her in there without trying to do something."

Adelaide wasn't meant to do anything. She was never meant to do something. It wasn't her place...but she had to.

"All right." Part of Adelaide wondered if she agreed just to see the Doctor's face brighten. She hoped that wouldn't become a pattern. "But I maintain the right to make us leave."

He nodded and reached out a hand and let his fingers brush against hers. The action seemed thoughtless. A reflex after so long together. So long of relying on each other. "Thank you."

|C-S|

Before the Time Lords actually let Bill know that they were back in the house, they decided to look around the home to see if they could find an obvious source for the mystery without involving Bill.

Adelaide's ideal would be if they could fix it without Bill ever knowing they were there. She knew that wouldn't likely happen, but it didn't hurt to try.

They started with searching the outside of the home, looking for anything that stood out as strange. What they found was just wood.

Too much wood. And barely any technology – the things they did find were at least fifty years old.

Adelaide tried to pass it off as simply an old home, but then the trees creaked as though they were being blown, and both Time Lords knew there was no wind.

She did manage to get the Doctor to agree to enter the home through the front door, knocking.

Bill was the first one who opened the door, though her other housemates crowded into the hallway behind her. "Hello, Bill," Adelaide said, nodding. "May we come in?"

"Adelaide?" the human asked, looking at her first. "Doctor? I thought..."

"Can we look at your central heating?" the Doctor asked, though he moved past Bill and into the home before the human could speak, going straight to the kitchen pantry. "We've been looking around, mostly outside. Very interesting. Lots of wood."

Bill looked at Adelaide. "Er...why are you still here?"

"There's no central heating!" the Doctor announced as they joined him in the kitchen. "Do you know what that is?" he held up a heater. "That's an oil-burning heater. You might need it. The hob is from the Thirties, and I doubt there's a washing machine." He handed the heater to Bill, who passed it to one of the other housemates.

"Thanks very much."

"I'm sorry," Adelaide said. "We were concerned."

"The power sockets will not take your devices," the Doctor continued.

"You were concerned about power sockets?"

Shireen, meanwhile, frowned. "Oh, I thought it was just my room."

"No, no, no," the Doctor waved his hand. "They're out of date." He sniffed. "What's that smell? Is that Chinese food? I love Chinese." He moved to go past the humans again, but Adelaide stopped him with a look. "May I come eat the Chinese food?"

"Can I speak with them in private?" Bill asked. Her housemates nodded, moving back to the room they must have all come from. She turned back to the Time Lords. "There might be a few old things, but it just needs updating. It's not like there's some massive mystery going on."

Adelaide crossed her arms. "Did you hear the trees creaking outside?"

"Yeah. It was the wind."

She shook her head. "There was no wind."

The Doctor moved past Bill, drawing the attention of everyone else. Adelaide didn't bother making him stop that time. "You should find another house."

Shireen, mid-bite, shook her head. "Mmm, I don't think so."

"The rooms are really big."

The other man nodded. "Exactly. And it's still the best place for the money. I'll just call the landlord, sort it out."

"You can't," Shireen reminded him. "No reception."

"Okay, so I'll go down the hill." The man stepped out of the room but immediately stopped. An elderly man had appeared, dressed in the same brown as the wood of the house. "Oh, hi."

"Didn't hear you come in."

The elderly man, who must have been the landlord, smiled. "For a man such as myself, discretion is second nature." He looked around the group. "So, a gathering. You're all here. No, except one."

"Pavel's upstairs," Shireen explained.

"And two in addition." The landlord turned to the Time Lords. The Doctor, for whatever reason, decided to take that moment to pick a prawn cracker.

"She's Professor Noble, he's the Doctor," one of the men explained.

"Doctor?"

"Yeah," Bill nodded, "er...he's...he's my grandfather. She's his friend. Prefers Adelaide."

"You're both assisting with the relocation?"

Adelaide nodded. "Correct."

"It's a heart-breaking experience, to leave one's charge behind, all alone in the big wide world." The landlord caressed some of the paneling close to his hand.

"Indeed, yes," the Doctor said. "You got children?"

"I..." the landlord seemed shocked by the question, "yes, a daughter. But I'm most fortunate, she's still under my protection. So long as that's the case, I'm most content." He turned to the humans. "So, I was calling to see if everything's satisfactory?"

One of the women stepped forward. "Actually, there are a few things."

"Yes, I see. Go on."

"No central heating?"

"The power sockets are wrong," Shireen added.

"And a landline."

"Some new furniture."

"I need some curtains, carpets..."

"Have you got a cat?" Bill asked, just as the Doctor made to take a bite of his cracker. The look Adelaide shot him made him stop.

The landlord, of all the complaints, picked Bill to focus on. "A cat?"

The human seemed taken aback by his attention. "Er...er...yeah. Er...Harry said that he heard some...some noise upstairs, like walking around?"

"No cats. No pets." He looked at Bill a moment longer before looking to the humans. "You understand I won't be able to do any of this tonight. But as soon as possible, yes. Knock on wood." He knocked, making the wood creak. "Do what I can."

"That's another thing," Shireen said. "This house is really creaky. Everything you touch, it's like uuuurrr!"

The landlord shrugged. "It's unavoidable, my dear."

"How do you get into the tower?"

The landlord's face hardened. "You don't. The tower is specifically excluded from the terms of our agreement."

The man who'd asked the question held up his hands. "Oh, right, well, thank you. No tower. Got it."

"Right." The landlord moved to leave, but his gaze fell on the Time Lords again. "Oh, are you two staying here tonight?"

"Yeah," the Doctor said.

Bill's eyes widened. "Er...no, they're not."

"Well, I'm not sure."

"There's no reason to."

"We probably will."

"There aren't two beds, so..."

The landlord nodded. "All right." He made to leave again, but the Doctor stepped forward.

"Sorry, excuse me," the Doctor said. "Sorry, sorry, sorry. Who...um...who's the Prime Minister?"

The landlord blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

"Margaret Thatcher?" the Doctor offered. "Harriet Jones? Wilson? Eden?"

The landlord lowered his voice, though Adelaide was still able to hear him. "I think it's better to leave your granddaughter here with her friends. They seem respectable, and I'll keep an eye, of course." He nodded and turned, tapping a tuning fork against the wall. "I'll attend to your requirements in the morning. In the meantime, sleep well." He placed the fork against the wall and enjoyed the hum, smiling before leaving.

**A/N: Adelaide never could resist a good mystery ;)**


	8. Curious

**Curious**

The humans waited for a second to speak. "I take it back," the woman said. "You're both fine. He's weird."

Shireen blinked. "Oh! The washing machine!" she rushed after the landlord but came back. "He's not there."

The Doctor held Adelaide's gaze just as there was a scratching sound in the ceiling.

"That's it," one of the men said, pointing up. "That's the noise I heard."

"Fascinating." As a group, they followed the sound around the room. Adelaide touched her fingers to a panel in the wall, but the sound stopped at that moment.

The other man shrugged. "It's just pipes. I'm going to bed."

"Yeah," Bill nodded. "Might go up, as well."

"Me, too," Shireen said. "Locking my door though."

Bill moved closer to Adelaide. "Er...Adelaide, perhaps you should leave now?"

"No, no," the Doctor spoke first, taking responsibility for the rudeness that Adelaide had been tempted to share, "we're fine."

"Or at least then, go and er..." she lowered her voice, "sleep outside, in the car."

Adelaide turned to the two humans who hadn't spoken. "I haven't had the chance to properly get to know you two, though I believe you, Harry, were in one of my classes?" she was not certain about that, but she hoped her memory served her rightly. When the human grinned, she knew she was right. "And your friend's name is?"

"Felicity."

"Wonderful. We can stay up later and talk."

The Doctor attached himself to the idea. "We're gonna...we're gonna chill. Yeah?"

Felicity grinned. "Yeah. Okay, yes!"

"Put some tunes on, yes?"

"Yes."

Harry nodded. "All right."

The Doctor looked to Bill. "See? We're good at making friends." He held out a hand to her. "Give me your phone." A pause. "Please."

"But why? There's no reception."

"Please." Bill handed it over and the Doctor, after a moment, started playing some Earth music. "I love this."

"Do you know who this is?" Felicity asked.

"Do I know who this is?" the Doctor laughed. "Yes, I know who this is."

Bill shrugged. "Yeah, it's Spotify so it's probably random."

"'Little Mix'," the Doctor read off the phone.

"You like Little Mix?"

The Doctor nodded. "Oh, clearly she does. Look, there's a whole playlist here."

Shireen took the phone from him. "What else have you got on it?"

Bill touched Adelaide's shoulder. "Can I have a word, please?" Adelaide nodded and gestured for the Doctor to join them in the hallway. "Honestly, there's nothing going on," Bill told them, lowering her voice. "Nothing weird, nothing alien. Just an old house and a dodgy landlord, which is pretty standard for students. I'll see you both later for more exciting TARDIS action, but, basically, this is the bit of my life that neither of you are in. Do you know what I mean?"

The Doctor nodded. "We know what you mean."

"Thanks."

"So, up the wooden hill you go," the Doctor gestured toward the stairs. "Sleep well."

"Okay."

"Though, may I suggest that you check on the friend who hasn't been seen for a day and only has strange music coming out of his room," Adelaide said.

Bill shrugged. "They said he just does that."

"Nobody just does anything."

Bill eyed them both. "You're not leaving, are you?"

The Doctor glanced at Adelaide. "No. Your friend will probably be fine." He knocked on a panel. "Knock on wood."

Shireen came into the hall. "We need to have a talk about your taste in music."

"You coming up?" the other man said, pausing by Bill's side.

"Yeah." Bill took a step back, eyed the Time Lords again, and left them.

The Doctor glanced at Adelaide. "Are you still okay?"

Adelaide nearly smiled. "Thank you for checking." Her attention shifted to something over the Doctor's shoulder, making her narrow her eyes. "The door..." She moved past him to study it, running her fingers around the edge.

The two humans still downstairs came into the hallway, holding Bill's phone. "Do you like this music, Doctor?"

The Doctor watched Adelaide work. "Reminds me of Quincy Jones," he spoke without truly paying attention to what he said. "I stepped in for him once. The bassist he'd hired turned out to be a Klarj Neon Death Voc-Bot. What was worse, he couldn't play."

"Doctor, this is an issue," Adelaide said.

Harry frowned. "The door?"

"It isn't."

"Isn't?"

"A door, anymore," Adelaide clarified, stepping away from it. "Try to open it."

Harry moved past her and attempted the door, though nothing happened. Felicity scoffed. "Come on. Shireen did it a minute ago." She joined Harry and tried. "So, it's locked."

Adelaide shook her head. "No. It's sealed."

Felicity frowned. "I don't understand." Everyone spun as there was a loud banging behind them, making them hurry back into the lounge. "The shutters."

"What about them?"

"Closed by themselves," the Doctor reported, moving to examine them himself. "Sealed."

"So, we're trapped?"

Adelaide nodded. "Perhaps that's the idea." She was very thankful she was primarily afraid of the dark, not being enclosed...of course, that did not mean she enjoyed this experience.

"What do you mean?"

There was the sound in the ceiling again, as though something was scratching. "What's that?" It creaked. "No, no, no, no!" Dust fell from the ceiling. "There's something in here. I can't be trapped! I can't!" Felicity ran, aiming for the kitchen.

"Wait!" Adelaide tried to reach the human as she scrambled for the shutters. "Felicity, listen!"

The human was fighting the shutters, trying to force them to open. "I can't be trapped!" Before Adelaide could pull her back, Felicity forced her way through the shutters. Adelaide immediately tried to grip them again, but they had already sealed. She hated that, for a moment, she could not tell if she'd tried for Felicity's sake or her own.

Harry shook his head. "Great. Now we're stuck here. Why'd you try and stop her?"

In answer, the Doctor held up a hand. "Listen." The sound from the ceiling grew, almost as though it was surrounding them. Preparing to consume them.

Outside the house, Felicity screamed. The Doctor and Harry rushed to the shutters to try and pull it open. If Adelaide hadn't watched them seal, she would have helped.

"What's happened to her?" Harry asked, stepping back. "What's going on? Do you think it's like she said? A thing?"

"Perhaps," Adelaide said.

"And so is it out there now? Or in here?"

The Time Lords eyed each other. "Or both."

Harry drew in a breath. "I'm scared."

"Don't be," the Doctor said.

"Why not?"

"It doesn't help." That made Adelaide look to the Doctor. She could remember many times that he'd named fear as a superpower, or something that made you clever. It was natural to be afraid, as much as Adelaide had tried in the past to ignore it. The Time Lord did not look back at Adelaide. He moved closer to the shutters and tapped it, listening to the creak. "Who's there?"

Adelaide hovered a hand over the wood closest to her. "What if something's got into the wood, into the true matter of the house? Wood nymphs, tree spirits, dryads...anything is possible."

"Doctor, Adelaide, what are you doing?" Harry asked them, growing distressed. "We need to get out and call the police?"

The Doctor pressed the wood again. "Who's there?"

"Doctor, you're provoking it." The Doctor pressed again. "It's getting louder!"

"Wake up! Wake up! Out you come!" With a final press, the wood opened, allowing what looked like a woodlouse to emerge. "Oh!" The Doctor glanced at Adelaide, in case she recognized it, but even she did not know what this truly was. "I was expecting something quite different, you know, like a gaseous creature, or microscopic!" He looked at her again. "Did you see it move through the wood? Interacting at a cellular level." He looked at Harry. "This must be alien! Got to be alien!" Back to the creature. "What are you going here? On your holidays?"

Adelaide followed the creature around the room. "Harry, find a matchbox."

"A matchbox?"

"Any type of box." She tried to catch it, but the creature was quick.

"What do you mean, alien?"

It was the Doctor's turn to try. "Oh, little one!"

Harry, instead of helping, looked around the room as the creaking surrounded them. "Um..."

"Oh, it can move fast. Come on, where's that box?" Adelaide grabbed the Doctor's shoulder to make him turn with her as more creatures than she could count streamed out of the wood, moving towards them. "Ah. Now, this starts to make sense. Yes. Dryads indeed."

"We need to get out."

"We can't!"

The Doctor opened the pantry door, pulling Adelaide in with him and keeping a hand on her in the small dark space. "Harry, in here!"

"What's the point of hiding in a cupboard?" Still, Harry joined them.

"It's not a cupboard!" the Doctor pulled a gate across the door and pulled the lever with his free hand, refusing to release Adelaide. With a rumble, the cupboard – in actuality, a lift – started down.

Once it finally settled, both Time Lords pulled out their sonics to use as torches and the Doctor opened the gate. They'd arrived in the basement of the home, which was thankfully not entirely made of wood. It was still dark as they began to move forward, but the light from the sonics helped.

"What are they?" Harry asked the Time Lords. "They look like insects but you're saying they can shut doors, trap us?"

"They're not just in the wood, they are the wood itself," Adelaide clarified.

The Doctor grinned. "Total infestation. Infestation of the Dryads!"

"You're talking like you've seen things like this before."

Both Time Lords shook their head, although it was the Doctor who spoke. "No, actually."

"But you said they were alien."

"There is a possibility that they're native to this planet, but I presume none of us have encountered them before," Adelaide explained.

"That's what they're called? Dryads?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Well, that's what I'm calling them, yes."

Harry shook his head. "You've gone crazy."

"Well, I can't just call them lice, can I?" They watched another creature crawl across a painting leaning nearby before reaching what looked to be a storeroom, though it was only once Adelaide found a light switch that they were able to confirm it.

The fact there were six boxes inside did surprise Adelaide slightly, but she almost immediately had a guess as to what it meant.

"Maybe it belonged to a family that used to live here?" Harry asked, considering the boxes.

"Harry, there are six boxes," Adelaide said.

Harry stepped up to one of the boxes, picking up a piece of paper. "Tenancy agreement. Same as ours. Six signatures. Jake Christie, Annie Wren, Jonathan Frost..."

"The date?"

"Er...1997. Sarah Tiller, Mark Hopethorne, Carl Richards," he finished.

The Doctor flicked through a collection of photographs from another box, stepping aside to let Adelaide look through them with him. "They move in, relax, go to their rooms, then panic. Infestation." There was a photo of one of the creatures, which Adelaide did not stop the Doctor taking.

Harry moved further into the room. "There's more." He held up a record sleeve, uncovering another agreement. "1977."

Adelaide picked up another. "1957. Every twenty years."

Somewhere else in the basement, they heard a door open and footsteps. "There's something coming," Harry hissed.

The Time Lords looked to each other. "Good." They were the ones who encountered the landlord first, although it was the Doctor who spoke. Adelaide did not stop him. Agreements had been signed, yes, technically, but not for this. No sane human would have agreed to this.

This was a different kind of interfering.

"Christie, Wren, Frost, Tiller, Hopethorne, Richards," the Doctor held up one of the images he'd taken.

The landlord nodded. He didn't seem bothered by the memories. "Fine young men and women."

"As were all the others," the Doctor agreed. "Where are they?"

"In the house."

"Where?" Harry asked, clearly not understanding. "Where? We haven't seen them."

"He means they are in the house," Adelaide said. "In the wood."

The landlord was watching the Doctor more than he was Adelaide. "Don't think I haven't considered the consequences, Doctor."

"Then why do it?" Adelaide asked, drawing the man's attention.

"My daughter was dying."

Harry shook his head. "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing could be done, until these creatures saved her." He looked to the side, watching more of the creatures – Adelaide refused to name them dryads namely because she'd been called a tree nymph before. "We'd do anything to protect them."

"Your daughter, she's here, she's in the house, isn't she?"

The landlord nodded. "Indeed. And she must survive."

Harry looked terrified. "We have to get out!" he ran for the stairs the landlord had come down. Before he got too far, Adelaide grabbed his shoulder and made him stop.

"No," she said, and fixed the landlord with a look she'd given the Doctor that had first earned her the name of protector.

"We have to get out!" Harry repeated, struggling against her.

"The moment you stand on that wood, those creatures will devour you," Adelaide told him, her voice calm, still watching the landlord. "I will not let that happen."

"They need him," the landlord said, raising the hand that still held his tuning fork.

Adelaide gestured her free hand at the Doctor. "You said that the creatures are keeping your daughter alive. Perhaps he can help – he is a doctor."

The Doctor nodded hurriedly. "I am! I'm a doctor!"

When the landlord nodded, the Time Lords allowed a glance at each other, both shocked it had actually worked.

Harry just looked more confused. "What is going on?"

Slowly, Adelaide released her hold on the boy. "We're going to help."

We.

|C-S|

There was a scream from the tower room just as the landlord opened the door to the tower room, having lead the group. The Doctor's eyes widened, but he looked far happier when they saw Bill still standing there, opposite a woman entirely made out of wood.

If anyone deserved the nickname of tree nymph, it would be her.

"Eliza, do not fear this man," the landlord told the woman made of wood, who must have been his daughter. "He says he might be able to make you well."

The Doctor, initially, focused on Bill. "Bill, how are you?"

For whatever reason, Harry refused to move from behind Adelaide. "Bill! Where's everyone else?"

Bill looked close to tears, but she seemed relieved to see Harry. "I'm okay. Shireen..."

"And everyone else?" Adelaide clarified.

"As far as I know."

The Doctor nodded. "In brief, he's her dad." He gestured to each person as he named them. "He's been keeping her alive with the bugs for about seventy years. Your friends are the food. Harry would have been if Adelaide hadn't saved him. We said that I could help." He turned to face the woman made of wood, smiling at her. "Now, you must be Eliza. How are you feeling? Rotten?"

"I am quite well."

"Administer your treatment, Doctor."

The Doctor rubbed his hands together. "Well, what's the medical history here? What happened? Eliza, you were very ill?"

"Yes."

"Yes? The doctors had..."

"Given up on you," Adelaide finished.

The Doctor pointed. "But then one day your father brings you a present." He looked to the landlord. "Where did you find them? What, on the roof? In the garden?" The landlord nodded. "You find the insects. You bring them into the house because you want to show them to her, presumably just to try to amuse her. You couldn't have known what they were."

"Can you help her or not?"

"I am helping. This is me helping. How did you find out their unique abilities? Did you bring them in here?" He looked around the room. "You brought them in here, right, but what activated them? You use a tuning fork now, but..."

"Pavel had that record on," Bill added. "A violin?"

Adelaide nodded. "High-pitched sounds."

The Doctor went to the table beside the bed and picked up the music box there, opening it and making creatures stream from the floor. "Soothes her to sleep. High-pitched sound. You leave your daughter alone for the night, or so you believe. The music wakes them. They set to work, and in the morning, you find her revitalized, just slightly wooden. You realize there's a way she can survive."

The landlord shook his head. "Enough!"

Harry frowned. "Wait, that doesn't make sense."

"Can you not interrupt?" the Doctor asked him. "Interrupting is rude."

Bill agreed with her friend. "Why would he pick up insects from the garden and bring them in to see his ill daughter?"

"Everyone loves insects."

"I don't!"

"Neither do I!"

Both humans looked to Adelaide to agree with them, but the Time Lady shrugged. "They're fascinating. But you have a point. The age."

Bill nodded. "He's not wood. He's just like us. So, if he's her father, and she was preserved seventy years ago..."

The Doctor scanned the landlord with his sonic. "You..." he pointed at Bill. "Oh, no flies on you, Bill. And," back to the landlord, "no bugs in you."

Eliza frowned. "I do not understand."

"I forget, you see, your human lifespan, it's...it's not long, is it."

The landlord moved towards Eliza. "Do not let them trouble you."

"What do you remember, Eliza?" Adelaide asked.

"My father, he knows what's best."

"Yes," the Doctor nodded, "the lice preserve the appearance and the voice, but not so much the memories. He's not your father, am I right?"

The landlord was getting desperate now. "No! Stop talking!"

Eliza looked to him. "Father, what's the matter? I don't understand."

"Your father would have had better things to do than playing with insects in the garden," the Doctor explained. "But he isn't your father. When you were ill, he was sent out of the house by the doctors who were failing to save his mother!"

Eliza drew in a breath, eyes wide. "His mother?"

The Doctor nodded. "Eliza, he's your son. Your loving son."

Eliza turned to the man, who began to cry. "My son?"

The landlord reached for her. "Forgive me. Forgive me."

"When you saw what the creatures had done, you understood, didn't you? The lice could keep your mother alive if you protected them, tamed them, fed them."

"If you could save the one who brought you into this world, wouldn't you?" Both Time Lords were quiet. "Your silence is a confirmation."

"I did what you told me because I thought you knew best. But I...I am your mother?"

It took effort for the landlord to nod, but he did. "Yes."

"And you, all these children you've taken." Eliza glanced at Bill and Harry. "You told me it was necessary, that we had no choice."

"That's right, it was. It meant we could stay together. Don't you understand? We were happy! I kept our lives a secret, and a secret we must remain." He wiped his tears, seeming to set his shoulders, and turned to the Time Lords. "You have brought her nothing but misery and confusion! You will be taken, like the others!" He rushed over to the bedroom door and closed the door before using his tuning fork on the wall.

Harry grabbed Adelaide's arm and squeezed in his terror. Bill rushed closer to the Doctor. "Okay, now's the time for the plan."

The Doctor glanced at Adelaide, but the Time Lady didn't have much else. "That was it, no plan. Info dump, then busk."

"Well, start busking."

He nodded and spun, drawing Eliza's attention. "Eliza, people have died and will continue to die unless you stop all this right now."

"How can I stop it?"

"You're the parent. You're in charge!" Eliza reached out a hand to the creatures and split them into separate groups. "That's it!"

"Do what I say!" the landlord tried. "I control you!"

Eliza shook her head. "No. It's me. I control them."

"Eliza, finish them now. Take them, or you'll die! They'll destroy you!"

"What's the point in surviving if you never see anyone, if you hide yourself away from the world? When did you last open the shutters?" the Doctor gestured at the window.

Eliza turned and opened the shutters without touching them. They could see fireworks in the distance. "It's the freshers' party in the park," Bill explained, recognizing it.

"Exactly." The Doctor nodded. "New friends, fireworks. That's what life should be."

Eliza watched them. "I remember..." she turned, looking to the landlord again. "My son, leave my side at last. Go and see the world."

"No, I don't want to!" the landlord's voice changed, sounding closer to a child. Desperate. "If you won't finish them, I will!"

Before he could do anything, Eliza grabbed his wrist. "John!" the creatures moved from her onto him. "My little boy, this has to end."

"No, we mustn't end. We have to destroy them."

"It's our time." The creatures swarmed them.

"No, I don't want to!" Eliza pulled her son into her arms and held him. "No, no..."

Eliza looked to the Time Lords. "Thank you."

The group watched as the creatures completely covered the mother and son. In almost a second, they had vanished, devoured. A second later, the entire building rocked, the very wood that built it shifting.

"We've got to get out of here," the Doctor said, moving toward the door.

Harry, eyes wide, pointed at a section of the floor that the creatures had swarmed around again. There was a hand forcing its way out. "Is that..."

Adelaide moved closer. "Yes, it's Shireen."

The Doctor laughed. "She's restoring them!"

Together, Adelaide and Harry pulled Shireen back out of the wood. Bill rushed over and hugged her, though Harry joined in the hug a second later. "I thought you were gone."

Shireen looked both of her friends over. "Are you okay?"

"Us? Yeah, we're fine. What about the others?"

Adelaide pulled the humans after the Doctor. "We need to leave!" After she'd ensured that the humans were following them, she released them, following the Doctor back out of the house.

On the pathway, the Doctor ran directly into Felicity, who was trying to rush back into the house. "Wrong way! Wrong way! Wrong way!"

They all stopped and turned as the house crumbled, turning to dust. Felicity shook her head. "Bang goes our deposit."

Shireen sighed. "Oh man, that's our house."

"Gone."

The Doctor, glancing at Adelaide, nodded. "Right, you lot, back to the estate agents. Better luck next time." He stepped to the Time Lady. "Are you ready?" She nodded and they went back to her TARDIS, which had again disguised itself as a car. "I will take responsibility for the deaths."

"That's good that you're finally keeping your word." She opened the TARDIS door for the Doctor, following in after him. "Thank you for engaging in the conversation, even if you were right."

His eyes widened. "You're admitting that someone else is right?"

"I've done that before."

"Just like I've kept my word before," he said. Adelaide moved past him to her console. "Are you ready to see her?"

"Do you really think that's smart?"

"She's asked about you." He touched a point on her console. "She wants to say thank you."

"For helping her escape Gallifrey?" she asked. He nodded. "Really?"

"You saved each other's' lives. I don't think she's going to let you run away." He smiled. "Want to get Mexican? We can all eat it together."

"Not Chinese?"

The Doctor laughed. "She's been asking for Mexican for the past few years."

Adelaide nodded. "Fine. I am curious as to how much progress you have actually made."

How successful he's been at making someone kind. How successful he might be at doing the same for her.

|C-S|

Nardole was fiddling at the vault door as the two Time Lords approached. "Oh, here he comes," Nardole mumbled, but he looked shocked when he saw Adelaide there too. "And her!"

"Are you being cheerful?" the Doctor asked him. "I'm against cheerful."

"Tell that to your past regenerations," Adelaide mumbled, earning a grin from Nardole and a joking glare from the Doctor.

"Bill told me you went on a little adventure," Nardole said to the Doctor. "You see?"

"I see what?"

"Well, you don't have to go to outer space to find monsters. There's plenty of things that want to kill you right here on Earth."

The Doctor held up the bags of food he'd carried. "Result."

"Ooo...actually, I'm not that hungry."

"Well, we are."

Nardole eyed the bags. "Obviously."

"Okay, you can take the rest of the night off." The Doctor waved a hand at the humanoid. "Go on, go and do whatever it is you do." He frowned. "Actually, what do you do? No! Never tell me that."

Nardole began to turn back to the vault. "I just want to have a look at this. Our friend inside's been a little restive lately."

"Ah, Adelaide and I can sort that out."

"No, it's all right, I don't mind."

"Goodnight, Nardole."

Finally, Nardole understood. "Right. Goodnight, sir. Goodnight, ma'am. See you in the morning." He began to leave, but before he'd gotten far, the sounds of a piano came from inside the vault. "A piano? You've put a piano in there? Why?"

Adelaide nodded to Nardole. "Goodnight."

Nardole sighed, mumbling to himself. "Oh, you don't learn, do you?" it wasn't clear which Time Lord he was referring to.

The Doctor gestured for Adelaide to move closer to the vault with him, tapping against the door. "Hey! Do you want dinner? Adelaide and I've got Mexican." The music stopped and the Doctor moved to the side, working on the controls. "Look, I know you miss it all, but we're all stuck here now, you know?" Technically, Adelaide wasn't stuck in the same manner, but with a TARDIS she was afraid to pilot off-planet, she was essentially trapped. "We're all prisoners. So, what do you say, dinner? All three of us? And we've got a new story for you, too. There's a haunted house and woodlice from space. And lots of young people get eaten."

The piano started up again, happier, excited.

The Doctor stepped back from the controls, looked over to Adelaide, and the pair nodded to each other. "We're coming in," Adelaide said to Missy.

**A/N: Who would have thought that communication would have worked!**

**But time for Missy to really enter the picture...**


	9. True Face

**True Face**

Adelaide leaned in the back of the Doctor's lecture hall, watching him lecture about the dangers of space...instead of crop rotation. As Adelaide understood it, the Doctor didn't tend to lecture about what he said he would lecture about. Instead, he would jump between any subject that took his fancy as he spoke. She hadn't told him that she would be coming that day but had decided to take advantage of the fact she had a break during the time he taught his class to watch him work.

Time to see the lectures that had earnt the Doctor so much renown at St Luke's. The lectures that Adelaide should have heard about before. The lectures that should have revealed the Doctor's presence at that school. But she'd missed all the signs.

"Space, the final frontier," the Doctor said as she arrived in the back of the lecture hall. He was attempting to draw something on his blackboard. "Final because it wants to kill us. Sometimes we forget that, start taking it all for granted. The suits, the ships, the little bubbles of safety, as they protect us from the void. But the void is always waiting." He turned and instantly spotted Adelaide.

In his momentary silence, the Time Lord fixating on her presence, everyone in the lecture hall turned to see what had drawn his attention.

Even after so long apart, they had maintained what they'd built all those years ago on Christmas. Adelaide knew what he wanted without him saying a word.

"How does space kill you?" she called, pushed off from the door frame to begin to walk closer to him.

With a grin, the Doctor pointed to her. "I'm glad you asked." Back to the class, spreading his hand in a gesture of introduction. "For those not lucky enough to know her, this is Professor Adelaide Noble. Biology, chemistry, astronomy, geology, botany, neuroscience, physics, zoology, bacteriology, oceanography, if she's feeling funky..." Adelaide raised her eyebrows. "Essentially, she's the clever one. But mind your manners around her."

"How does space kill you?" Adelaide repeated, smiling now despite herself.

"The main problem is pressure," the Doctor continued, addressing both her and the class. "There isn't any. So, don't hold your breath or your lungs will explode. Blood vessels rupture. Exposed areas swell."

"An interesting fact," Adelaide added, "is that the boiling temperature of water is much lower in a vacuum. This means that your sweat and saliva will boil, as well as the fluid around your eyes."

The Doctor nodded. "You won't notice any of this because fifteen seconds in, you've passed out as oxygen bubbles formed in your blood."

"And ninety seconds in, you're dead."

"Any questions?" One of the students raised her hand and the Doctor fixed his attention on her. "Yes."

"What's this got to do with crop rotation?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Er, I dunno. But space is great, isn't it?" He lowered his attention back to Adelaide, almost without realizing it, acting on a centuries-old reflex. "It's beautiful."

Adelaide didn't remember the last time the Doctor had called her beautiful. Hadn't really realized how much she'd missed it.

|C-S|

Once the Doctor dismissed his class – very soon after Adelaide's arrival, though they had spent a few more minutes trading facts about space and the dangers within – he came down from his higher level to see her. "You're lucky I didn't do something similar when I came to see you all those centuries ago."

"I would not have indulged you."

"Not even a little?"

She shook her head. They turned in unison, starting to walk, though they didn't bother discussing exactly where they were going. "You're missing it. Space. Traveling."

"Aren't you?"

Adelaide sighed. "Always."

He looked around them, seemingly to ensure that Nardole wasn't spying. "We could always..."

"You're supposed to be guarding the vault."

He shrugged. "It can guard itself." When Adelaide said nothing, the Doctor continued. "Come on, let's show Bill the stars. What could go wrong?"

That time, Adelaide did look at him. "When you're involved?"

"I'm not so irresponsible anymore."

"If you weren't irresponsible, you wouldn't be trying to leave Earth."

"That makes you irresponsible too."

Her turn to shrug. "I never claimed to be responsible. I ran from responsibilities and consequences as much as you."

"Run," he corrected and Adelaide looked at him, eyes sharp. "You never stopped."

She was quiet for a long time then. She knew he was right, but it always sounded different when he said it. Adelaide could and would admit her propensity for running whenever she was pressed – she'd never claimed to be someone who maintained loyalties to anyone beyond herself – but, more recently, she'd started to feel shame for it.

As if she should have been different.

But when the Doctor said it, when he named her as a runner, she felt a comradery. A different sort of ownership. A pride.

"We'll use your TARDIS. I'd rather not rely on mine."

The Doctor nodded and grinned and Adelaide caught her tongue before she named him beautiful. She wondered if he could see it in her eyes.

Missy certainly had been able to.

|C-S|

The Time Lords stood on either side of the Doctor's console with Bill between them, though the Doctor was in the process of moving around. "Space!" he told the human, spreading an arm as if the gesture encompassed all of space. "Going to space is exactly like camping."

"Is it?" Bill asked the question to Adelaide.

"No."

"Okay."

"Well, in a way, yes," the Doctor tried.

Bill sighed. "Great."

"Too much between you and the outside and you might as well stay home," the Doctor explained. "To really feel it, you need the space equivalent of a wafer-thin sleeping bag and a leaky two-man tent. So, pick a campsite." He stopped beside Bill and tapped the monitor before her, on which he'd pulled up a map of the universe, though a bit in Bill's relative future.

"Got any reviews?"

The Doctor frowned. "What?"

"You know, like for restaurants. 'Waiter was a bit handsy, lasagna gave me the trots'. Two stars."

"Strangely, no."

Bill focused her attention on the monitor, though it was clear that she didn't understand what it actually meant. "Oh, I don't know. That one." She pointed at a random point.

The Doctor nodded. "Ah, yes, well, possibly we could go there, pitch our tent next to the toilet block. How about something's a bit more exciting?" He touched a different point, which glowed red and beeped from the activation.

"What's that?"

"His favorite song," Adelaide called. "Otherwise known as a distress call."

"You like distress calls?"

The Doctor nodded, for once taking full ownership of that fact. "You only really see the true face of the universe when it's asking for your help."

"I haven't seen my true face in years," Nardole said, his voice coming from the lower levels of the console as he emerged. "Swapped it for this one on the run."

The Doctor grimaced. "Oh, look, Bill, it's Nardole. What a lovely surprise. I thought I sent you to Birmingham for a packet of crisps."

"Yeah, I saw through your cunning ruse."

"Yes, well, if you will go thinking for yourself. What do you want?"

Nardole crossed his arms. "I was given strict instructions to keep you at the university."

"Who by?"

"You."

"Well, you're not doing a very good job, are you?" The Doctor waved a hand. "I'll overlook it this once."

"Do you know what this is?" Nardole held up a small device.

"If it's not crisps, you're sacked."

"Fluid link K57. Removed it from the TARDIS the other night."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "That is very untrusting."

"You took an oath, sir. The vault cannot be unguarded."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Oh, listen to Mr. Boring."

"I'm acting under your orders!"

"See how reliable I am?"

"What's a fluid link?" Bill asked the Time Lords.

"No idea. But the TARDIS can't go anywhere without it."

Adelaide, who didn't know much about Type 40 TARDISes but knew this, frowned. "Did the Doctor tell you that?"

"Yes."

"He lied."

The Doctor snapped his fingers at Nardole. "Teach you to trust me. Always ask Adelaide when you want to know the truth. She hates lying."

"Doesn't that mean she'd hate you?" Bill asked.

"Doesn't she?" the Doctor asked, though he spoke quietly enough that the human didn't seem to hear him. Instead of focusing on it, he focused on the console, setting them into flight. Adelaide had to rush forward to keep them stable – he purposefully made the flight require her presence. "I'm docking your pay for this," he called to Nardole, pretending at normality.

Bill laughed and the Time Lords looked at each other and wondered if he was lying again.

|C-S|

Before they actually let Bill out of the TARDIS, the Doctor scanned the area – a ship – around where they'd landed to ensure the threat was not immediate. He stepped out of the ship, moving to the side to allow Nardole out after him. It was dark, but not so bad that Adelaide would actually be uncomfortable, though she would not have said if she was.

"I'm a bit cross with you, sir," Nardole said, frowning.

"Noted. Scored out. Forgotten." Bill was the next one out, eyes wide as she took in the ship. "Wait," the Doctor said, holding up a hand. "There's no oxygen."

"What? Well, how come we're breathing?"

Adelaide emerged, her own sonic out and scanning the surroundings. "There's an air shell around the TARDIS."

The Doctor pointed his sonic back into the TARDIS and, with a gust of air, opened the second door. "Now there's a really big air shell around the TARDIS."

"How big?"

He soniced a nearby computer system to turn on all of the lights. "Big enough for a stroll."

Nardole shook his head. "So cocky."

The Doctor made a face at the humanoid before leading the way out of the first room, through the corridors of the ship.

Bill stepped closer to Adelaide. "Why aren't we floating?"

"Artificial gravity."

The human jumped in place to test it. "Doesn't feel like space." Her gaze fell on a window as they passed it, grinning. "Aw! Now it feels like space!"

The Doctor leaned closer to the edges of a door as they neared it. "Look at this. Classic design. Pressure seals, hinges. None of that shk-shk nonsense." He soniced it open.

"Space doors are supposed to go shk-shk, not urrr," Nardole said, miming a door opening.

"Are you going to be like this all day?"

Nardole nodded. "Yeah. Till you're back where you should be."

Bill put her hand on Adelaide's arm, making the Time Lady turn her attention from the men to what Bill had noticed over the Doctor's shoulder. There was someone in a spacesuit with their back to the group, motionless, his head lulled to the side. "Hello?" Adelaide called, making the Doctor turn to see as well. They both moved forward slowly until they could face the motionless figure properly.

At the better angle, Adelaide could see that his skin was grey. Unnaturally so. His veins weren't right.

The Doctor scanned him. "He's dead."

Bill looked the motionless man up and down. "Well, how can he be dead? He's standing up?"

"No, it's just his suit that's standing up," Adelaide corrected, coming around the dead man's other side to stand next to the Doctor. "He's a corpse sitting inside."

"Oh God, it's standing for him?"

"Gyro stabilizers, magnetic boots and gloves, onboard computer. It could run, jump, and update his Facebook. Death, where is thy sting?" Again, the Doctor glanced at Adelaide.

Nardole stepped back. "So, back to the TARDIS?"

Bill drew in a breath. "Yeah, can you turn it off?"

"Turn what off?"

"The suit. Just, please, just...just turn it off."

The Doctor frowned at her. "Why?"

"He's just standing there. It's sick. It's disrespectful."

"I'll tell you what's disrespectful." The Doctor stepped back. "Whatever killed him."

"Well, there was no oxygen, right? Before we got here. Didn't he just suffocate?"

The Doctor moved to the side to get some information on the ship. Nardole and Adelaide looked over the suit. "His tank is full," Adelaide said.

Nardole tried to touch the corpse's face. "And his field's up."

"His what?"

"A forcefield," Adelaide explained. "It keeps the air in."

"Well, look, can we just, like, lie him down or something? I mean, this isn't right."

The Doctor shook his head. "No, it isn't. It isn't." He gestured at the computer terminal. "Mining Station Chasm Forge. Crew of forty. I've got thirty-six records of life signs terminated. Last log entry, Station declared non-profitable."

Nardole scoffed. "Yeah, your workers all dying'll do that for you." Further down the corridor, something made a sound, making the Doctor, Adelaide, and Bill turn to look. Nardole, however, stepped back. "Okay then! Back to the TARDIS1 Lovely in there. Nice and cozy."

"Yeah. Yeah, he's right," Bill said. They could hear footsteps approaching. "Doctor, Adelaide, are you listening?"

"Forty minus thirty-six," the Doctor mumbled, speaking more to Adelaide than anyone else.

Bill shook her head. "Sorry, what?"

"Equals what?"

"Oh no, I'm just saying that Nardole was saying..."

"Four." The Doctor focused on Adelaide and waited, tense, for her to nod. And she did. He turned to Bill. "Four, Bill. Four survivors, one distress call. The universe shows its true face when it asks for help. We show ours by how we respond." The Doctor didn't say it, but when he looked to Adelaide again, she knew he thanked her. "Any questions?" Bill opened her mouth to say something, but the Doctor held up a hand. "Good."

Together, the Doctor and Adelaide led the way further into the ship. The sounds, it turned out, were from someone moving small containers. They were in shadows, so even the Time Lords couldn't see details about them.

"Hello!" the Doctor greeted. They all approached the figure, but it did not stop to acknowledge them.

Bill waved a hand in front of his face and, when nothing happened, Adelaide scanned the suit with her sonic. "Has he got his tunes on?"

"No," Adelaide said, using her sonic to remove the helmet and reveal the lack of person inside.

"Whoa!"

"Calm down," the Doctor said, holding out a hand to the human. "It's empty."

Nardole glared at Adelaide. "And you couldn't just tell us?"

"Are you trying to scare us?"

"Adrenaline keeps you fast." Adelaide looked to the Doctor and waited for him to finish the thought.

"Fast is good."

Bill glared. "Do people ever hit you?"

"Occasionally," Adelaide said. "But they tend to hit the Doctor more."

The human crossed her arms. "So, it's basically a robot?" as she spoke, Nardole looked down into the suit, making a face.

"Ah, well. Sort of." The Doctor shrugged. "Fairly dumb. Capable of simple tasks." He looked to Nardole. "So you'd better watch your step. You could be out of a job." He bent to get closer to the suit, finding a display. "And ah! Speech." He pressed a button. "Hello, suit."

"Good morning." The suit had been given a female voice. "How may I assist?"

Nardole's eyes widened. "Ooo, recognize that voice. Yes! Nice girl, actress, bit orange. Left me for an AI in a call center."

"What killed the crew of this station?"

"I am unaware of any recent deaths."

"And the oxygen?" Adelaide asked. "Where did it all go?"

"There has never been any oxygen in this station."

Nardole laughed. "Oh, listen to that. Still saucy after all these years."

The Time Lords exchanged a look. "Explain."

"Oxygen is available for personal use only, at competitive prices."

"It's only in the suits," the Doctor said, realization striking both Time Lords. "Personal use. They only have oxygen in the suits themselves."

"And unlicensed oxygen will be automatically expelled to protect market value."

Nardole sighed. "Charging for the air you breathe. She hasn't changed. What was her name?"

Bill's eyes widened. "Hang on. Didn't we just fill this place with air?"

Adelaide tightened her grip on her sonic. "Yes, we did."

"Because it said expelled."

A klaxon sounded, making Nardole turn. "What's that?" The alarms continued, increasing in volume.

"It's decompressing!" and the Doctor, despite himself, almost without noticing, grabbed Adelaide's hand and pulled her back to the TARDIS. She did not fight him.

In the room they'd left the corpse, they could see the bulkhead doors were open, all the way out to the rest of space. The group held onto bars screwed into the wall as the pressure of space pulled. The corpse stayed in place from something in his suit, though even the TARDIS was pulled towards the open door. Both Time Lords reached out with their sonics, forcing the bulkhead door to shut again, blocking them from their ship.

"So!" Nardole said, forcing himself up and brushing himself off. The Doctor rushed forward, scanning the door. "The TARDIS is on the other side of that."

"Yes, I was really hoping that someone would state the obvious," the Doctor snapped.

"Vacuum behind it, can't open it."

"Oh, you're on a roll."

"And if we could, we'd be sucked out into space," Nardole continued.

Somewhere else in the station, there was something metallic that clanged. "What's that?" Bill asked.

"Er...nothing to worry about."

"Really?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Yes, not for several minutes. Well, don't stress early, it's a waste of energy."

"Stress about what?"

Adelaide moved to the side, sonicing the panel there. "Occupants of repair station, please identify," someone said, transmitting. "Occupants of repair station, please identify."

"Identify first, please," Adelaide said. The Doctor mouthed 'please' after she'd said it, as though he'd forgotten her commitment to manners.

"I'm sorry?"

"All of your crewmates are dead. Either you were extremely lucky and survived the massacre, or you killed them. Which is it? And please don't bother lying."

There was a pause. "This is Drill Chief Tasker. And I haven't killed anyone. Yet. Now, who is this?"

"I am Adelaide, and I'm here with the Doctor and two other people." Normally, Adelaide may not have bothered to mention the Doctor, but that man had a tendency to be remembered, as multiple past experiences had attested to. "You sent out a distress call, we received it. What happened to the crew of the station?"

"Hang on, you're in the repair bay, right? Get out of there! Now!"

"Why?"

"There are suits in there! For God's sake, stay away from the suits!"

Before either Time Lord could turn, Adelaide's sonic flew out of her hand. The suit – and the corpse inside – was reaching for them and once it had it, it crushed Adelaide's sonic. There was a spark of electricity, but it ran through the suit, making it keel over. Adelaide could only stare at her crushed sonic.

She'd had that sonic pen since they first met Amy Pond, the Doctor's TARDIS having gifted it to her before they'd properly left the planet. Even if she'd never had a sonic pen before the Doctor, even if she didn't rely on it as much as the Doctor, she had enjoyed having it. It had been nice.

And now it was utterly destroyed.

Adelaide knelt and pulled it from the suit's grip, forcing her face into neutrality, before she fixed her attention on the suit.

"Adelaide, be careful!" Bill said, eyes wide.

"The sonic fried it. The suit is safe."

"Er...you thought you were safe before," Nardole pointed out.

The Doctor glared at him. "Yes, well, this time it's Adelaide saying it and she's more likely to be right than I am." He bent as well and pulled a computer chip from the side of the suit. "Get us some history." He tossed the chip to Nardole before straightening and turning to Bill. "You okay?"

"Er...yeah. Just a...just a little freaked, I think."

"Try not to breathe so fast." The Doctor turned back to Adelaide and held her a hand, helping the Time Lady stand without saying anything. He smiled at her and, somehow, she managed to return it.

"A single line of instruction was sent to all suits," Nardole called. He'd plugged the chip into the wall in order to read it. "Deactivate your organic component."

Bill frowned. "Organic component, as in people?" Nardole's eyes widened.

The Doctor nodded. "Interesting. They were killed by their own suits."

"Can you fry those ones, too?" Bill nodded to the four suits waiting in nearby alcoves.

"Possibly, but we have another problem. Opening the airlock was the station's plan A. Plan B, filtering out all the oxygen." The Doctor nodded at a sign on a close wall, warning people to take care of their oxygen.

"So they can sell it back to us," Nardole said.

"Capitalism in space. If we want to keep breathing, we have exactly one option. Buy the merchandise." The Time Lords exchanged another look as Adelaide tucked her broken sonic into her pocket.

"Oxygen levels are seriously depleted," the computer announced. "Please step onboard your Ganymede Systems Series Twelve SmartSuit. Engage pressure pad to activate customized robing."

Bill's eyes widened. "You said those things were going to kill us!"

"Well, on the bright side, we're dying already."

"How does this help?"

"We know that they killed their occupants on specific orders," Adelaide said. "These appear to be off-network for repairs, and were thus incapable of receiving commands."

"What if you're wrong?"

"Then we'll be horribly murdered."

The Doctor's expression hardened. "Adelaide..."

"Let's move forward as if I'm correct." Her turn to harden her expression, to turn to the Time Lord. "Weren't you just saying that I was more likely to be right than you?"

He stepped closer, dropping his voice. "That's beside the point."

"In this instance, it seems that not putting on the suit is more of a death wish than putting it on, if that's what you're so concerned about."

Nardole coughed. "If those suits have killed thirty-six people, that means there's thirty-six corpses walking about this station."

"You know, that really doesn't matter right now," the Doctor snapped.

"Correction. Yeah, it does. Because I think there's something moving out there." Nardole flicked on the outside lights, making the group turn to see a large group of suits – and the corpses inside – on the outside of the ship.

"Suits, now!" the group ran to the suits, each standing on a pressure plate before them to activate the process. Adelaide was, honestly, very thankful there wasn't a proper helmet, at least not yet. It was almost bad enough that they were running out of oxygen, but now she needed to be prepared to add a helmet. And she hated that.

"Welcome to the Ganymede Systems Series Twelve SmartSuit," Bill's suit announced, the only one speaking. "Oxygen field engaged. At current levels of exertion, you have two and a half thousand breaths available."

"Breaths? You couldn't just give it to me in minutes?"

"The suit is extrapolating from current levels. When you panic, you breathe quicker," Adelaide reminded her.

"You die quicker," the Doctor added.

"Yeah, the scareder you are, the faster you suffocate. So, relax or die." Nardole winced. "Sorry, probably not the most helpful thought." Nardole patted Bill's arm. "So, breathe in, breathe out."

The Doctor moved back to the computer. "Drill Chief Tasker, this is the Doctor. Do you read me?"

"Read you, Doctor. You need to take Corridor Twelve to Processing. Quickly."

The Doctor gestured to the group, though his gaze lingered on Adelaide. "Come on."

Bill was the last to move, but Nardole turned to her. "We'd better go. Come on, but keep breathing."

They hurried forward, though they could hear the suits entering the ship behind them, following them. "They're here," the Doctor said, glancing back. "Come on! This way! Move!"

"You look like you're trying to run," Bill's suit said, interrupting them as they attempted to move quicker without actually breathing much harder. "Would you like some help with that?"

"Can you shut your girlfriend up?" Bill asked Nardole.

The humanoid, instead, grinned. "Velma! That was her name!"

"Confirmed," Bill's suit said. "My name is now Velma."

The Doctor used his sonic to seal the door behind them before they continued down the corridor. However, they couldn't go much further, despite the corpses hammering on the door behind them, because the panel was already destroyed.

"We've hit a sealed door at the end of Corridor Twelve," the Doctor called, using his suit's communicator. "No way through."

"My suit's really called Velma?"

"Correct. My name is Velma."

"Tasker, come in," the Doctor tried again.

Nardole looked behind them. "Oh! They're through!" He rushed forward to hammer on the door in front of them with the Doctor.

Adelaide looked at Bill. The human's eyes were wide, the shield around her shimmering. "Breathe in, breathe out," she whispered. "Breathe in, breathe out."

"Hello?" the Doctor tried.

"Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out."

"Anybody?"

"Tasker!" Adelaide called, trying to match Bill's breaths, but failing. She needed to breathe. And if she breathed she would die. And Adelaide did not want to die.

"Breathe in..."

"Hello? Tasker!"

"Breathe..."

The door opened, letting them rush forward. "Here. Go! Quick!"

They were brought to a quick halt by two weapons pointed at them by the other four survivors.

"Deadlock the door!" a woman ordered, one of the men not holding a weapon hurrying to do that.

"Cutting it a bit fine, weren't we?" the Doctor said, resisting the urge to look to Adelaide.

"There was some debate over whether to open it at all," one of the men holding the guns at them said, who must have been Tasker, given the voice.

Another man moved past Bill, drawing the human's attention. "Wha!" she leaned back in shock. "Sorry, I wasn't expecting...hello."

The man, who had blue skin, rolled his eyes. "Great. We rescued a racist."

"What? Excuse me?"

"And you are?" Tasker asked them, looking between the Time Lords.

"We got your distress call," the Doctor handed the man his psychic paper.

Bill was, meanwhile, attempting to rescue her situation. "Sorry. It's just I haven't seen many, well, any of your people."

"It shows."

Tasker looked to the woman. "They're from the union."

She scoffed. "The union's a myth."

"Take a look."

Nardole nodded. "Yeah. We're from the mythical union."

Tasker moved to the blue man. "Dahh-Ren?"

"We're here to help," Nardole tried.

"Sorry, is your name Darren?"

"Dahh-Ren," he corrected.

"Ahh, makes more sense." Bill's arms stretched out in front of her, stiff and straight. "Er, that's not me. That's not me."

"It's just glitching," Tasker said. "Ivan, take a look."

Ivan moved up to Bill, taking her arm to lead her away. As she passed Dahh-Ren, she looked to him again. "Look, for the record, I'm not prejudiced. I'm usually on the receiving end."

"Oh? Why?"

Bill frowned. "What, you really don't know?"

Ivan brought Bill apart from the rest of the group, although her suit continued to speak. Dahh-Ren looked to the Time Lords, crossing his arms. "Right, where's your ship?"

"Er...we're parked just off your repair station."

The woman sighed. "Then you might as well be on the moon. They're swarming round there now."

"It's just maths now," Tasker said. "Oxygen divided by bodies. And none of us have more than three thousand breaths left."

The Doctor nodded. "Then stop wasting them. We need a map of the base and a full rundown on what happened here."

"Who the hell put you in charge?"

The Doctor glanced at Adelaide, but he spoke regardless. "I'm here to save your lives. But if you don't want me to, just raise your hand."

There was a pause and Tasker crossed his arms. "Abby, get the man a map."

If there wasn't a real threat of suffocation, Adelaide may have fought it. She may have made the Doctor stop and reconsider why he had the right to order about the final survivors of this massacre. But she needed his control right now.

**A/N: Poor Adelaide. First her sonic gets destroyed, then they're facing the quite real threat of darkness and suffocation. At least she got a sweet moment with the Doctor in the beginning!**


	10. False Health

**False Health**

The group stood around the main table, looking down at the map that had been found.

"Deactivate your organic component," Adelaide repeated.

"All the suits got the same command," Tasker nodded. "Best guess, someone hacked the network."

"And you survived how?"

"We were off-network," the woman, Abby, explained. "You have to be to repair the conveyors." She pointed at the section of the station they'd been in.

"It was just dumb luck."

"The measurements are in average breaths?" Adelaide asked.

"The only unit worth a damn out here."

The Doctor sighed. "Of course they are."

"Forty breaths to the dorms, one twenty to the core." Abby traced a finger down the map. "That's where we're headed. It's the safest place."

Bill and Ivan rejoined them, Bill's suit functioning properly at least for the moment. "Are there more suits inside the base or out?" the Doctor stepped closer to Adelaide as he spoke.

"Outside is suicide."

"Inside we can move faster than them," Tasker explained. "Outside they have the edge. Which means we're dead."

Nardole frowned. "What are you mining? Is it worth stealing?"

"You think this is a robbery?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Well, killing you'd be a good start if it was."

"It's how I'd do it." Everyone but Adelaide looked to Nardole in shock. "If I was to do that sort of thing. Which, actually, I probably wouldn't, so please don't worry."

"If the product has more value than the life of the individuals harvesting it..." Adelaide added, which drew the shock of the group, and particularly the Doctor. "It is logical, in its own manner." The Doctor looked hurt and Adelaide hated that she cared. "How productive have you been recently?"

"This is the least productive we've all been for months," Dahh-Ren admitted.

"Look, we're mining copper ore. You'd need to steal a mountain to make it worth your while."

The Doctor stepped away from Adelaide. "Your employers. Any help from them?"

"They're too far away."

"Not that it matters," Ivan said. "Whoever hacked the suits also cut the radio."

"So your distress call..."

Ivan shrugged. "Was a botch. I boosted a suit radio through the dish."

The Doctor nodded. "Good job."

"What about the AI in the suits?" Adelaide asked, remembering the Vardies.

"They're dumb as rocks."

"But are they capable of learning? Evolving? Growing?"

"Maybe get tired of carrying pesky humans around?" the Doctor looked to Nardole. "Know the feeling?" Nardole nodded.

"They've got limited problem-solving," Ivan said, "and that's it."

The Doctor frowned at Adelaide. "We're missing something. What are we missing?"

"Oxygen," Abby said. "That's what we're missing. Maybe find some of that and leave the big picture till later, yeah?"

Before anyone could speak again, an alarm went off. Tasker rushed to the side to check the monitor, but his eyes went wide. "They're fixing the lock!"

Abby stepped back. "Well then, it's time to go."

"Limited problem-solving, eh?" Nardole scoffed.

"West corridor is free," Ivan called. "Forty breaths to the core. Let's move."

That time, Adelaide moved before the Doctor could reach for her, though she didn't know if he would try.

She didn't want to know.

|C-S|

By the time they'd reached the airlock, they'd lost Tasker to the suits. Adelaide tried not to think too hard on his death. Ivan locked the door behind them. "Helmets on," he instructed.

The Doctor, immediately, turned to Adelaide, though it was Bill who sounded the most terrified. "Where are we going?" Bill asked, voice shaking.

"Outside."

"Well, didn't they say that was a bad idea?"

"It is. But I know a worse one." Adelaide nodded at the Doctor and he stepped up to Bill. The helmet would be difficult, as much as Adelaide wished for otherwise, but, honestly, being out in space...it would help. Though she knew she could die out there much quicker than she would die underwater, the expanse of space was good. Comforting. Adelaide was better when she was surrounded by stars.

The fact that Adelaide looked relatively calm did not seem to help Bill. "Wait, why, why, why, why, do I need that? What about the air forcefield thing?"

"Not strong enough for a vacuum. Trust me." The Doctor fitted Bill's helmet over her.

"What happens if I throw up in my helmet?"

"Color and smells," Nardole said.

Bill nodded. "Don't throw up in helmet then. Check."

The Doctor moved past Bill back to Adelaide, almost reaching for her hand. "Warning. Helmet malfunction," Velma said.

"Er...Doctor?"

The Time Lord turned again as the suit spoke again. "Please advise local technician."

Bill's suit reached up and took her helmet back off. "Somebody stop it!"

The Doctor rushed forward. "Put it back on!"

"Doctor, that's not me doing that."

"Put it back on!"

"I'm trying." Bill's face grew even more panicked. "I can't move my arms!"

Adelaide looked at Ivan. "Stop the cycle."

"We can't stop it. It's automated."

The Doctor tried to sonic Bill's suit, trying to stop it. "Now we know why your suit was being repaired." Nothing happened and the Doctor grabbed Bill's arms. "Bill. Bill! You're about to be exposed to the vacuum of space."

"Oh, God!"

"So don't hold your breath."

Bill nodded. "Or my lungs'll explode."

"You were listening," Adelaide said, thankful that she could remain calm, despite the imminent threat. "Well done."

Bill began to cry, truly and utterly terrified. "What are we going to do?"

Before anyone could answer, the airlock opened. The Doctor reached for Bill.

Adelaide wished he wasn't so self-sacrificing, and hated that she loved him for it.

|C-S|

"You're an idiot," Adelaide mumbled, sitting next to the Doctor, staring at his face. His blind face. His stupidly blind self-sacrificing face.

"You say that like that's new information." He smiled. "Shouldn't you go check on Bill?"

"She's fine. After what you did."

"Would you have preferred I let her die?"

Adelaide sighed. "I don't know what I would have preferred." She was quiet for a moment. "You could have died."

"But I didn't."

"We don't know how much regeneration energy you actually have. You can't just do things like that."

"We?"

Adelaide blinked. "I mean..."

"Just friends?"

She nodded, swallowing. "Just friends." Adelaide looked up at the sound of the plastic sheeting rustling, immediately straightening.

Bill, worried, had come to see the Doctor. "Doctor?"

Slowly, the Doctor stood. He'd been sitting with his back to the sheeting, so he had to turn to face Bill. "Bill. You're up."

"You're blind."

"I am?" the Doctor laughed. "Well, that explains the bruised shins." Bill rushed forward and hugged him tightly. "Oh, don't get all gooey on me. It's temporary."

"Really?"

The Doctor stepped back. "Yeah. Once we get back to the TARDIS."

"The TARDIS?"

"I've got stuff in there that'll cure anything. Failing that, I think I've got some spare eyes somewhere. Adelaide should be able to find them. They're from a lizard, but I'm sure they'll fit."

"So...er...until then?"

The Doctor frowned as Adelaide stood. "Until then what? You really think this," he gestured at his face, "is going to slow me down? I do most of my best work ordering other people around."

"Be thankful Dahh-Ren left," Adelaide mumbled, which made the Doctor grin again.

Bill crossed her arms. "So, what's the plan?"

The remaining crew of the ship came through the sheeting, joining them. "Well, we've all been trying to get a radio working," Dahh-Ren said, "and they've been...thinking."

"Don't mean to hurry you," Abby added, "but in seven hundred breaths I'll be dead."

"I need to think." The Doctor turned and walked away, but Adelaide followed him to the side, stopping him just before he ran into loose metal.

"He really doesn't like help," Nardole told Bill, though he was watching the Time Lady. "Except from her, it seems."

"A lot of things seem to be except for her."

Nardole shrugged at that.

An alarm went off and Abby moved to check the reason. "It's a transponder, from a ship." Dahh-Ren moved to follow her.

Bill, instead, went up to the Time Lords just as the Doctor gave Adelaide his sonic. "You two okay?"

"Bill, we've got no TARDIS, one sonic, about ten minutes of oxygen left, and now I'm blind." The Doctor grinned. "Can you imagine how unbearable I'm going to be when I pull this off?"

Bill shook her head. "Don't do this. You always do this."

"Do what?"

"Make jokes to distract me from whatever's about to kill us."

"What else are jokes for?"

"Adelaide!" Nardole called, knowing the Time Lady was more likely to be paying attention to him. "There's a rescue ship on the way."

"We've picked up a company transponder," Dahh-Ren added.

Abby frowned. "If there's a rescue ship on the way, then how can the rescue ship already be here?"

"Too many rescue ships. There's a first-world problem."

Abby shook her head at the Time Lord. "Who are you?"

The Doctor looked more to Adelaide, as though he were asking her for permission, and she touched his arm. "I'm the Doctor," he said. She was thankful that he wasn't including her. As much as she hated him just taking control, there was the simple fact that...he knew what he was doing. Most of the time, he was good at it. And she did still love him for it. "I will do everything in my power to save all your lives. And when I do, you will spend the rest of them wondering who I was and why I helped you. If anyone's offering a better deal, be my guest."

"You didn't save Tasker, did you? And he believed you. Trusted you. And now he's dead. Can you give me one reason why you shouldn't join him?" Abby pointed her blaster at the Doctor's head. Immediately, Adelaide pulled the Time Lord back, narrowing her eyes at the human before her actions truly registered.

Ivan rushed forward. "Whoa! Whoa! We're all getting a little punchy here. It's the oxygen thinning. It's making it harder to think."

"Will you get out of my way!" Abby cried, at the same time that Dahh-Ren cried out as a corpse touched him, sending a jolt of electricity over him.

"Instruction received," his suit said. "Complying. Please remain calm while your central nervous system is disabled."

Dahh-Ren tried to fight his suit, desperate, but Adelaide pulled the Doctor further away. "No, no!"

Abby fired at the other corpses as they approached. "Head for the reactor core! Run!"

Adelaide forced the Doctor to turn and run as Dahh-Ren died. "What's happening?" he asked her, trying to look around, as though he could see.

"Guess!"

The final survivors reached the corridor, Ivan leading. "They knew we were there, somehow."

"Voice rec," Abby guessed. "Had to be."

Bill, behind them all, stopped. "Adelaide?" she called, making the Time Lady turn. The human's suit was flashing red again, frozen. "My suit! It's doing it again! I can't move!"

Ivan moved towards her, looking the suit over. "The sequencer's jammed. It needs a reboot."

"How long will that take?"

"Too long."

The Doctor nodded. "Okay, we'll pick her up. Come on."

Nardole moved to do that, but Bill's suit turned on the boots, locking her in place. "Warning. This is an illegal maneuver."

"The suit won't let us. Health and safety."

"Health and safety?"

Bill's eyes were wide again. "Doctor?"

"Okay, get her out of her suit. Give her mine."

Ivan shook his head. "The sequencer controls the release clamps. We can't get her out."

"Well, we can't leave her here. They'll kill her!"

"Please do not interfere with the operation of this suit," Velma said. "Fines may be incurred."

"Oh, great," Bill scoffed. "I'll get fined for dying!"

The Doctor reached out and touched Adelaide's shoulder. "Fined for dying," he repeated. The Time Lady nodded, though he couldn't see the movement.

"Doctor?"

"What if there never was a hack?" the Doctor said, making clear that he and Adelaide had realized the same thing. "What if this is just business? Business as usual."

"What do you mean?"

The Doctor stepped forward, reaching for Bill. "Bill. Bill, do you trust me?"

"Why are you saying that?"

"We're going to have to leave you here," Adelaide told her.

"What? I'll die!"

The Doctor shook his head. "You're not going to die. But I won't lie to you, this will not be good."

Abby stepped closer. "We have to go. Now."

"You will go through hell, but you will come through it," the Doctor continued. "And I, and Adelaide, will be waiting on the other side."

"But what if I was going to die..."

"You're not going to die!"

"Would you just say exactly the same?"

The Doctor stepped back to Adelaide's side. "We will see you soon."

Bill looked near tears. "Just tell me a joke before you go." Adelaide took the Doctor's arm again, guiding him through the corridor. "Just tell me a joke!"

"If we're wrong..." Adelaide mumbled to the Doctor as they hurried.

"We're not wrong."

They heard Bill scream.

|C-S|

Once they reached the reactor, Adelaide helped the Doctor work with the wires to make his idea properly work. Behind them, a torch – wielded by Bill's suit – was attempting to cut its way into the room to reach them.

"This isn't going to work," Nardole said, standing by the Doctor and Adelaide.

"Isn't it?" the Doctor looked towards Nardole as he worked. "Why, what do you think Adelaide and I are doing?"

"Electrolysis. Splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen."

The Doctor pointed at him. "Oh, that's clever. I wish I could see me doing that. I'm glad Adelaide can."

"Doctor, that water is cooling the nuclear core. We'd enjoy five minutes of oxygen before the whole thing overheated and blew."

He nodded. "Yes, five whole minutes! We could boil the hell out of an egg! Stop being such a quitter!" Adelaide passed him the cable that he reached for.

Nardole looked between the Time Lords. "Doctor, Adelaide, it wasn't either of your faults. You couldn't have saved her."

"You know what's wrong with this universe? Believe me, I've looked into it. Everyone says it's not their fault." The Doctor's voice grew harsh, almost as though he didn't realize it was happening. "Well, yes, it is. All of it. It's all your fault. So, what are you going to do about it?"

"There's nothing we can do! She's dead."

"She's not any deader than any of us," Adelaide said, remaining calm.

The Doctor turned to Adelaide. "Get me to a keyboard."

Nardole frowned. "What? Why?"

"Because we're not trying to make oxygen." Adelaide guided the Doctor by his arm towards the keyboard she'd spotted.

Ivan eyed them. "You think you have a plan."

"We've got exactly one plan left."

"What plan?"

The Doctor grinned. "The big one. The one you've been waiting for all your life."

Abby looked to Nardole. "What's he doing?"

The humanoid leaned forward to look at the screen. "Coolant system again."

The Doctor nodded. "Yes, I've rejigged it a tiny little bit. Either that or I've really screwed up the plumbing. It's tough when you're blind, but Adelaide helped, so it probably worked splendidly."

Abby crossed her arms. "We need to know about this plan."

The Doctor pointed in the vague direction of her voice, although he missed slightly. "Ah-ha. The nice thing about life is, however bad it gets, there's always one last option available." The computer beeped. "Dying well."

Abby moved to another computer terminal, typing quickly, before she gasped. "No. No!"

"What is it?"

"Our life signs. They've wired them to the coolant system. If we die, it vents."

Adelaide nodded. "When the suits kill us, the core will blow and the whole station will be destroyed. A very big investment, all gone in quite a big explosion."

"Is that really the best you've got? Revenge?"

"Not just revenge," the Doctor said. "It's revenge as bright as the sun. It's revenge you can see across galaxies!" He grinned. "Not bad for a blind man."

"A blind man with help."

Ivan tried to work at the other terminal, trying to do something, but nothing happened. "They've locked us out of the subroutine."

The Doctor shrugged. "Oh, I'm sorry, I just thought I was tweeting."

Abby glanced back at the doors. "They're through the third lock."

"Open the doors," Adelaide ordered.

"Are you out of your mind?"

"Well, Adelaide's not, but I am, completely," the Doctor said, reaching out to touch Adelaide's shoulder again as if it was his only anchor in the universe. "But that's not a recent thing. Listen, all we've got left is a good death. This is the moment you've been waiting for since the day you were born. Don't screw it up now."

Abby shook her head. "There's rescue ships on the way."

"No, there isn't!" the Doctor took a breath, calming himself. "No, there isn't. There was never a rescue ship."

"What are you talking about?"

"There was no hacking, no malfunction," Adelaide explained. "The suits are doing precisely what they were ordered to do by your employers."

"And what would that be?"

"Save the oxygen that you are wasting. You said that you'd become inefficient. The conveyors were down."

Abby raised her eyebrows. "So everyone had to die?"

"You were merely the organic components and you were no longer efficient. If they view the product as more valuable, logically, you are the ones that would be thrown away."

The Doctor nodded. "Check on that rescue ship if you don't believe her. Access the log."

Ivan did as told, though Abby shook her head. "No, not true. None of it. You two...you're just lunatics."

"It is true, Abby," Ivan said. "The ship, it set off before the distress call."

"They're not your rescuers. They're your replacements." The Doctor shrugged. "The endpoint of capitalism. A bottom line where human life has no value at all. We're fighting an algorithm, a spreadsheet. Like every worker, everywhere, we're fighting the suits."

Somewhere in the ship, a klaxon sounded. "They're nearly through!" Ivan cried.

The Doctor turned to face it. "Open up. Let's send them a message. Let's teach them a lesson they will never forget. If they take our lives, we take their station and every penny they will ever make from it. Die well! It's the finish line! It's winning!"

There was a moment of quiet. "Open it," Abby ordered. Ivan sighed, but he obeyed. Everyone in the room froze as the corpses, led by Bill, entered the room.

"Doctor!" Nardole hissed, moving slowly closer to the Time Lord. "Doctor..."

"What?"

"It's Bill."

The Doctor nodded. "Of course it's Bill. Fate, me, and Adelaide, we have a thing." He raised his voice to a normal volume. "Hello, suits. Our deaths will be brave and brilliant and unafraid. But above all, suits, our deaths will be..." he paused for emphasis, "expensive!" All of the suits froze. Adelaide, with the Doctor's sonic in hand, moved through the suits, looking them over as the Doctor continued. "Check your readings. We die, your precious station dies. The whole thing will blow. The company will make the biggest loss in its history. A moment ago, we were too expensive to live. Now we're more expensive dead." The Doctor spread his arms. "Welcome to the rest of your lives."

"But you said that we were going to die," Abby said.

"Technically, I said we were as dead as Bill," Adelaide corrected. "I merely neglected to explain that Bill is not actually dead." She soniced Bill's suit and couldn't help but smile as the human breathed in. "The Doctor and I noticed earlier that her suit battery was too low for an actually lethal dose."

The Doctor nodded. "Adelaide and I, we know what it takes to kill someone. She's even officially credited with discovering some of them."

One of the corpses walked closer to Ivan and his eyes widened, clearly recognizing her. "Ellie..."

"What are they doing?"

The Doctor waved a hand at Abby. "Relax. They're giving us their oxygen. It's good for business."

The other corpses moved towards the rest of the group, exchanging their oxygen tanks. "I'm not sure I'm very happy about it," Nardole mumbled.

"Thank you," Ivan told the corpse of Ellie.

When the corpses stepped back, Nardole cheered. "It worked!"

Bill took a few quick breaths. "I think..."

"Yeah?" the Doctor prompted.

"I think I'm alive."

"Yep. You do seem to be under that impression."

Bill turned and hugged Adelaide, as the Time Lady was the closest, though she did reach out and pull the Doctor to join them. Nardole hurried over, finishing the hug with a mumble of "cuddle". Adelaide had to resist her instinct to cringe and push away.

And she had to tell herself that it wasn't based in relief at finally being able to hug the Doctor again.

|C-S|

Nardole stood before the Doctor, small machine in hand, while Adelaide leaned at the console above them, watching. She'd been tempted to stand by the Doctor while this happened to ensure Nardole did everything properly, but she forced herself to stop and stay away.

The Doctor and her were just friends. Only friends.

Adelaide ignored how much that hurt her to admit. She was rather good at ignoring things like that.

"Okay," Nardole said. "Keep your eyes open. Keep them open up there, that's it." Adelaide watched the milky sheen fade from the Doctor's eyes.

"You could have told us your actual plan in the first place," Abby told Adelaide, stepping closer as the Time Lady was the one close to the humans.

"The suits would have heard if the Doctor or I told Bill that her battery was too weak. I've learned over the centuries that it is not wise to tell your enemies your secret plan."

"Better?"

The Doctor stood and, in response, the TARDIS made noises. "Hmm..." he said, looking around. "Ah, we're back in the TARDIS. When did that happen?" he came up to the main level.

"Thank you, Doctor, Adelaide, for all that you've done," Abby said, looking between them. "I'm sorry that I didn't have more faith in your methods."

"Ah, don't mention it." He waved a hand. "Now, Adelaide and I can set you down on a hub world outside of corporate control, or anywhere, really. The universe is your crustacean."

Abby looked at Ivan. "Head office. We've got a complaint to make."

The Doctor grinned. "I think we can arrange that." He came beside Adelaide, beginning to work the console. She watched his hands with a small frown. "Promise me you'll be loud?"

"Promise."

If the Doctor noticed Adelaide's expression, he did not mention it. He didn't even properly look at her.

|C-S|

Back in the Doctor's office, he sat with his feet up, sonic shades on. The moment they'd returned to Earth, he'd put on the glasses, claiming that he felt like wearing them, for the sake of style. Adelaide left him, Bill, and Nardole to go back to her TARDIS and see if she could either repair her broken sonic or just get a new one.

"Does it work?" Bill asked. She'd wanted to stay near at least one of the Time Lords for a bit after nearly dying.

"Does what work?"

"Making a complaint to Head Office."

The Doctor shrugged. "No idea. Never had a head office. Neither did Adelaide. She never bothered with governmental things like that. But as far as I remember, there's a successful rebellion six months later. Corporate dominance in space is history, and that about wraps it for capitalism."

Bill grinned. "Yay!"

"Then the human race finds a whole new mistake." He waved a hand. "But that's another story."

"Can't wait."

He switched to pointing at her. "But you will."

Bill took another breath, finally calm enough, and moved to the door. "Laters!"

"Laters."

The door closed at the same time that Nardole re-entered from the connecting room. "Never again."

"Stop talking. Now." The Doctor didn't bother with manners when Adelaide wasn't nearby to scold him, though he knew she would prefer it if he made them a permanent habit. Especially now...

"I'm serious. We were so close to not making it back. Then what happens to the vault? You know what's at stake here."

"Really, stop talking."

"What if you got killed out there, huh? Or Adelaide? What happens to your precious Earth then? One of you, and preferably you, needs to be here, and you need to be ready if that door ever opens." Nardole moved forward as the Doctor's gaze fell to the side. "Look at me."

"I can't."

"What if you came back injured or sick? You really think our friend down there won't know that? Won't sense it?" he surged forward again. "Look at me!"

"Nardole, I can't." The Doctor turned towards the humanoid's voice. "I really can't! I can't look at anything ever again." His voice went quieter, as though he was worried Adelaide could still hear him. "I'm still blind."

|C-S|

"How was your adventure?" the interface asked Adelaide as she entered her TARDIS, immediately appearing beside the console. Adelaide swore that its hair had grown. Every time she'd seen it, it looked slightly different, as though it was still finding the form it preferred.

"Refreshing." Adelaide pulled her broken sonic from her pocket. "Can this be repaired?"

The interface fixed its attention on it, eyes shimmering a darker green. "Yes." A section of the console opened. "Deposit it inside."

She did so. "Thank you."

"Would you like any upgrades?"

If Adelaide was being honest, she would have preferred to not even repair it. She would have preferred to rely on nothing but a TARDIS. But after so long with this sonic pen, and because it had been a gift from the Doctor's TARDIS...she couldn't just abandon it because it broke. "No."

A small beep and the console opened again, her repaired sonic sticking out. Adelaide couldn't help but smile as she took it.

She honestly couldn't say if she was smiling because of her repaired sonic, or because of the adventure with the Doctor. Adelaide almost didn't bother to determine the truth.

She was happy, and that was fine.

**A/N: More teamwork from our Time Lords! And some more revelations from Adelaide about how much she does actually still care for the Doctor. Seeing him in peril tends to do that for her ;)**


	11. The Problem

**The Problem**

Before St Luke's, the Doctor received a call.

When he realized it was a summons to kill another Time Lord, he was, honestly, terrified. He knew that Missy was out wandering the universe, knew that there might even be others, especially with Gallifrey in the state that it was. But he also knew that Adelaide was out there.

It could have been her.

Even if the Doctor didn't honestly think it possible that Adelaide could anger many people to the point of execution – he knew that she'd had a problem the Atraxi and many other official governmental or legislative groups, but only the Silence had ever truly wanted her dead – she was still the first person he thought of. Of course, Adelaide was always the first person the Doctor's mind went to ever since she'd left.

He was fairly certain that he hated her. And he hated that he did. Hated that he even thought that.

"Death is an interesting problem," the leader of the executioner group who'd summoned him, the man naming himself Rafando, told the Doctor as they walked. "With over a billion intelligent species active in this galaxy alone, it is an ever-greater challenge to know how to kill all of them. On this planet, we are proud to serve as executioners to every living thing. The destruction of a Time Lord, however, is a particular honor." Rafando turned to the dais before them. "This technology is perfectly calibrated. As you can see, it will stop both hearts, all three brain stems, and deliver a cellular shock wave that will permanently disable regenerative ability."

"I know how it works," the Doctor said, his fists clenched.

Rafando nodded. "You certainly will in a moment. Following termination, the body will be placed in a Quantum Fold chamber, under constant guard for no less than a thousand years. In case of, shall we say, relapses." He nearly smiled. "Life can be a cunning enemy. An additional stipulation of the Fatality Index is that the sentence must be carried out by another Time Lord. Apologies for our choice, but your people are not easy to come by. We contacted the other one, but she forwarded your information."

The door behind the Doctor opened and he didn't turn, because he couldn't bear if it was Adelaide. He didn't know what he'd do if it was Adelaide, and he hated that he didn't know.

"Oh! Doctor! I didn't expect you." The Doctor let out a breath as he turned to face Missy and didn't know if he should be thankful or hate it even more. Or even just hate it just the same. "Thought you'd retired. Either sordid bliss on Darillium with the girlfriend, or domestic bliss on Earth with the missus, that's the word among the Daleks. What happened?" Missy watched his face. "Oh, I see. My condolences."

Could she see what had happened between him and Adelaide? Did she know? Was it that obvious, or did she just know him so well after so long?

He almost didn't know which one he would have preferred.

Missy gestured back towards the dais and the Doctor turned, moving to the side opposite her, closer to the lake.

"The prisoner will kneel," Rafando ordered.

No one moved. Rafando nodded and two guards moved forward to take Missy's arms and force her to move, but she raised her hands. "Right." She stepped up onto the dais on her own. "Thank you." She knelt and looked up at the Doctor and all he could remember was the little boy he'd met on Gallifrey.

If Missy had looked anything like that little boy when Adelaide had met them, he didn't blame Adelaide for not noticing how mad he was. The Doctor certainly hadn't.

The Doctor had never thought to ask Adelaide that, exactly what she'd thought about the little boy the Time Lords had resurrected. He supposed that, like most things, Adelaide had pretended it hadn't happened.

Behind him, a cube rose from the lake, looking vaguely Gallifreyan in origin, although not quite. As though it was built by someone emulating Gallifrey, but had never actually mastered the technology. "The Quantum Fold chamber is prepared," Rafando said.

"Great."

"The sentence will be carried out." Rafando turned to the Doctor. "Executioner?"

Slowly, the Doctor turned to face Missy. He wondered what Adelaide would have done at this moment, faced with this choice. After all, she'd never been that good with making choices when pushed. She had a reputation for running away. For protesting. He'd even made her into more of a renegade. She'd always been tended towards that, even without the official designation, but the Doctor and his tendency to overturn chess boards had managed to bring the same out in her, even when she didn't realize it.

It was part of what she'd hated. Part of why she'd left. Adelaide couldn't bear becoming someone she didn't recognize. Someone she might hate.

Someone who would place their hand on the lever to execute one of their only true friends left in the universe and truly not know what they should do next.

Adelaide always prided herself on knowing what would happen next. She always thought she was right, even when she was horribly, horribly wrong.

And so did the Doctor, in the end, even when he tried to pretend otherwise. What a horrible dance this was.

The Doctor fixed his attention on Missy again. The Time Lady was not near crying – he did not remember the last time he'd seen his old friend cry – but she did look, for lack of a better word, desperate. "Please, I'll do anything. Just let me live."

|C-S|

In the dark – both internally and externally – the Doctor leaned against his lectern. He knew that there was a chance that Adelaide would come to find him here, but the chance was lower here since he didn't actually have a class in session, so she would go check his office first. And then, maybe, he'd be able to avoid her.

She had not seen him since she left his office to repair her sonic. As far as he was aware, she believed his sight returned. The Doctor would not – could not – let her realize the truth. Granted, he did not know exactly what she would do if she knew, but he also knew that he didn't want to find out.

The door in the back of the lecture hall opened and the Doctor straightened. His sonic sunglasses were capable of transmitting biological information about the people who approached – fifteen men, between forty and seventy – but, as it turned out, that wasn't a lot. "Hello? Hello? Who's there?"

"Good evening, Doctor," a man with an Italian accent said, moving closer. "We have come here today direct from the Vatican."

"Oh, right. That's nice. Well, if you've got a collecting tin, I'm sure I can find something. Er, leaking roof, is it?"

Nardole rushed in from a side door. "Oh, no...no, no, no, no, no. Stop talking. Stop now. Please, just listen to them. It sounds important."

"We have come here to see you because your services and wisdom are recommended at the highest level." The figure moved to hand something to Nardole. "As you can see, this is the personal recommendation of Pope Benedict IX. In 1045."

The Doctor smiled. He'd encountered that particular Pope before he'd ever known about Adelaide surviving the war. Had always meant to bring Adelaide to visit and introduce the pair. "Pope Benedict. Lovely girl. What a night. I knew she was trouble, but she wove a spell with her castanets." Of course, then again, the Doctor was thankful he'd yet to manage an introduction. If the Church didn't know about Adelaide and her more impressive wisdom, they wouldn't go look to her for help and he wouldn't have to run into her, which meant he wouldn't have to reveal his blindness.

"Doctor!" the Italian man said again. "On behalf of every human soul in this world, of any creed, of any faith, with the utmost respect and in complete secrecy, His Holiness, the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, requests most urgently, a personal audience."

The Doctor looked around as though he could see the people around him. "Well, if he's so keen to talk to me, why doesn't he just come here himself?"

Nardole leaned closer. "He is here. He's standing right in front of us." Gently, Nardole turned the Doctor to face him.

"Hello, ah, the Pope." The Doctor nodded at him. "I'm sorry that I didn't recognize you there. You don't do this. The Pope doesn't zoom round the world in the Popemobile, surprising people. Why would you do that?"

The Pope spoke to one of the other men for a moment before facing the Doctor again. "Extremis."

Adelaide would probably kill the Doctor for not calling her in to join the mystery solving, but he was willing to deal with that. He was more afraid of her discovering he was still blind than her discovering she hadn't gotten to solve a mystery.

|C-S|

Back in the Doctor's actual office, guards stood around the TARDIS to ensure he didn't run away while Angelo, the first Italian man who'd spoken, properly explained the situation. "There is an ancient text buried deep in the most secret of the Vatican libraries. A text older than the Church itself. The language of this text is lost to us, but thanks to the work of an early Christian sect, the title survived." Angelo moved, but the Doctor had no idea what it meant.

"Okay, so what's the title?"

"Oh." Nardole moved forward. "Yes, I can see that it says...er...Veritas."

Angelo nodded. "Literally, The Truth."

"Obviously, this sect, they understood the language."

"It died with them," Angelo said. "And all copies of their translation disappeared shortly after their mass suicide. A few months ago, after many centuries of work, the Veritas was translated again."

Nardole frowned. "Right? And?"

"What did it say?" the Doctor prompted.

"No-one knows. Everyone who worked on the translation, and everyone who subsequently read it is now dead. Dead, Doctor, by their own hand." The Doctor pressed his sonic glasses to bring up the various relevant news reports. "The Veritas is a short document," Angelo continued. "A few pages only. And yet, it contains a secret that drives all who know it to destroy themselves."

"Confirmed suicides? All of them?"

Angelo nodded. "In every case. Beyond doubt."

"All bodies recovered?"

"Except one, but we naturally assumed that he had..."

"Assume nothing," the Doctor corrected. "Assumption makes an ass out of you, and umption. Cardinal, one of your translators is missing."

"Doctor, those translators were devout. Believers. They took their own lives in the knowledge that suicide is a mortal sin. They read the Veritas and chose Hell."

"Dottore," the Pope said, drawing the Doctor's attention, "will you read the Veritas?"

The Doctor had to clench his fist. Going to get Adelaide, going to bring her along...he wanted to see her, but he couldn't bear it if she knew.

|C-S|

Bill had not known the Time Lords long, but she already understood that when the Doctor turned up without Adelaide or vice versa, it was not good. Granted, she'd been introduced to him without Adelaide, but she'd watched him be angry and desperate and a bit too willing to hate. Having Adelaide with him seemed to temper him, at least somewhat.

Without her, he was a bit – quite a bit – ruder.

"Doctor!" she called as she entered the TARDIS. "Here's a tip. When I'm on a date, when that rare and special thing happens in my real life, do not, do not under any circumstances, put the Pope in my bedroom!"

Above her, the Doctor was removing something from a box. "Okay. Now I know. Air cleared. Nardole will explain what's going on." He moved and sat with his back facing her.

Bill frowned. "Er...Doctor?"

"It's...er...I think it's pretty serious," Nardole said, looking between the Doctor and Bill.

"What's happened?"

"Well, you..." Nardole went quiet as the Doctor shook his head. "You know the Vatican?"

"Yeah."

"The one in Rome? In Italy?"

Bill nodded. "Yeah..." Bill looked around the console, desperately hoping that Adelaide would emerge. "Where's Ad..." That time, it was Nardole who shook his head.

The Doctor opened the device he'd removed from the box. One of the Italian men leaned closer. "And what is that?"

The Doctor soniced it with his glasses. "It's a sort of a...a reading aid."

"It looks dangerous."

"Completely deadly. But, you know," the Doctor shrugged, "swings and roundabouts."

"Pope Benedict said that you were more in need of confession than any man breathing," the Italian man said. "But when the offer was made, you replied it would take too much time. On behalf of the Catholic Church, the offer stands. You seem like a man with regret on his mind."

Bill would love nothing more than to be a fly on the wall during the Doctor's confessions. And during Adelaide's. Perhaps even the Time Lady's more.

|C-S|

Rafando looked to the side. "Have you requested a priest?"

The two Time Lords looked to the side. There was a covered figure approaching. The Doctor's instinct was to search for any sense of a Time Lady, but there was nothing. It wasn't Adelaide. He knew that it couldn't have been Adelaide.

He wondered if Missy could tell that he was searching for the other Time Lady. If she cared. If she, the one who'd helped them find each other, felt proud.

"Well, I haven't," Missy said.

The figure gestured for the Doctor to approach. "Apparently, I have."

"I shall seek consultation." Rafando used his device. With an irritated sigh, Missy sat back on her heels. "There are four hundred and twelve precedents in the Fatality Index. Divine intervention, therefore, is permitted for a maximum of five minutes."

Missy sighed. "Five minutes."

Rafando held out a hand. "The executioner may now discuss his immortal soul and any peril thereunto."

Carefully, the Doctor walked to the figure. "Greetings, sinner. Only in darkness are we revealed."

"I never sent for you."

"Goodness is not goodness that seeks advantage," the figure said. "Good is good in the final hour, in the deepest pit without hope, without witness, without reward. Virtue is only virtue in extremis. This is what he believes, and what I hope she will learn, in time, from him. It is his legacy in the universe. The madman in a box. My Doctor." The figure revealed a journal that the Doctor recognized before uncovering himself. It was Nardole. "River wouldn't approve."

The Doctor frowned at him. "How the hell did you get here?"

"Followed you from Darillium, on the explicit orders of your late friend, River Song." Nardole furrowed his brow. "Warning, I have full permission to kick your arse."

"Language," the Doctor mumbled.

|C-S|

Nardole managed to understand the Doctor's request for the two of them to stay in the TARDIS after everyone else left. The Doctor wasn't certain exactly how subtle he'd been, but since no one else mentioned it, he supposed he managed it suitably. "Okay, so you're blind and you don't want your enemies to know," Nardole said, nodding. "I get it. But why does it have to be a secret from Bill? Or Adelaide? Why can't she be here too?"

"Because I don't like being worried about." The Doctor swallowed. "Around me, people should be worried about themselves. Even Adelaide."

"Yeah, shall I tell you the real reason?"

"No."

"Because the moment you tell Bill or Adelaide sees, it becomes real. And then you might actually have to deal with it."

The Doctor frowned at the humanoid. "Good point, well made. Definitely not telling either of them now."

"You're an idiot."

He shrugged. "Everyone knows that."

"Adelaide might not worry. She might be able to fix it."

"She's a biologist, not an expert on Time Lord eyeballs."

"She might be."

"She's not going to come." The Doctor clenched his fists. "They don't know about her yet. And they never will." Before Nardole could speak again, the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS, thankful for the small amount of sight that his sonic glasses provided.

He wondered if Adelaide had gotten a new sonic of her own by now.

"Que deve proseguire senza di me. Il Cardinale Angelo vi condurra alla biblioteca," the Pope said.

"Here you must go without me," Angelo translated. "Cardinal Angelo will conduct you to the library."

The Pope embraced the Doctor, who stiffened. He may like hugs more than Adelaide, but that didn't mean he adored them. "Possa il Signore illuminare il Vostro cammino."

"May God light your path."

The rest of the men who'd come to fetch the Doctor left, though the Doctor could still see their information through the walls when he directed the glasses' attention. "Well, he could certainly give it a go."

Angelo led the way to a wall. "The entrance to the Haereticum, the library of forbidden and heretical texts. First instituted by your old friend, Pope Benedict, who still guards the door."

Nardole laughed. "You old dog." If Adelaide wasn't going to remain a secret, the Doctor would have corrected the humanoid's assumption that his past relationship with Pope Benedict was even part of the reason he didn't want Adelaide there.

Something dragged against stone and the Doctor guessed Angelo had opened the secret door concealed by a painting. The Doctor could see the rough layout of the room they entered, but not much beyond that.

"Very few know this place exists," Angelo continued. "The library of blasphemy, the Haereticum."

"Harry Potter!" Bill laughed.

"Language!"

Angelo gestured for the group to follow him. "Please, stay close to me. The layout is designed to confuse the uninitiated."

The Doctor shrugged. "Sort of like religion, really."

Bill glanced back at him. "You happy in those shades? Not dark enough for you?"

"In darkness, we are revealed." Clearly, Bill needed to spend more time around Adelaide.

|C-S|

"Remember, sinner, in darkness, we are revealed," Nardole said, voice low, but gaze harsh.

"I regret, gentlemen, this consultation is over," Rafando called.

Missy groaned. "I regret it, too."

"The sentence must now be carried out." As the Doctor turned, Rafando gestured to the dais Missy still knelt on.

"Well, take a few more minutes if you like," Missy rolled her eyes. "Knock yourself out. Actually do. Do that. Knock yourself right out." The Doctor moved back to the dais, fixing all his attention on his old friend. "I'll be good, I promise." He thought he saw tears, though he knew that wasn't true. Missy never cried. "I'll turn...I'll turn good. Please. Teach me...teach me how to be good."

The Doctor swallowed. "Without hope. Without witness. Without reward."

|C-S|

The Doctor kept pace with Bill as they walked. "Who was your date, then?"

"Er, Penny. It's a long story."

He began to say something else, but Angelo stopped and pulled something. "The very center of the Haereticum," Angelo explained. "Home of the Veritas for over a thousand years."

"Truth in the heart of heresy."

"And death in the heart of truth."

Nardole frowned at the pair of them. "You'd be wizard at writing Christmas crackers, you two." The humanoid drew in a sharp breath. "Doctor!"

"What's that?" Bill asked.

"I don't know."

The Doctor tried to guess where everyone else was pointed, but he saw nothing. "Oh, look, it's a mysterious light, shining round a corner, approximately ten feet away," Nardole said, speaking louder as though the Doctor's hearing was going as well.

"Hello?" Angelo asked. "Who's there?"

"Doctor?"

"This library is forbidden!" Angelo stepped to the side.

Bill reached for him. "No, wait!"

"Who are you?" The sonic glasses picked up a figure, but no information about it. "What are you doing here? Speak! Speak to me."

"What's through there?" the Doctor guessed. "What's through that door?"

"There is no door there," Angelo said, his voice low. "It's a wall." Angelo hurried forward. "Impossible. Quite impossible."

The Doctor stepped back. "Let's take a look at the Veritas. I have a feeling the answers might be there."

Angelo didn't move. "I have to check if there is a breach in the wall. I'll unlock the cage in a moment."

The Doctor nodded. "Sure." He pulled his sonic from his pocket and turned away, using the combination of glasses and sonic to navigate towards the cage.

Bill followed, but she gasped, jumping back. "Oh, my God!"

The Doctor turned, seeing nothing. "What's wrong?" he paused. "Oh, hang on." He tapped his glasses to register the new person, standing inside the cage. "I think there's someone in there."

"Yeah, we are very slightly getting that," Nardole said.

"I'm sorry," the man said. "I'm sorry. I sent it."

The Doctor frowned. "Sent what?"

"I sent it, yes."

"Sent what where?"

The man turned and ran out of the cage, vanishing into the library. Bill moved to begin to follow, but Nardole grabbed Bill's arm. "No, stop. You'll just get lost."

"Cardinal Angelo, someone just broke into your book cage," the Doctor called behind him, moving slowly towards the cage.

"Priest, by the look of him," Nardole confirmed. "Shot out the lock."

Angelo said nothing, but the Doctor shrugged. "Oh well, he hasn't gone far. So much for your forbidden library, Cardinal." He found the door to the cage and stepped inside.

Bill moved past him. "Doctor, look at this. Must have been his."

"A laptop," Nardole provided.

Bill leaned down and the Doctor heard typing. "Hey, there's Wi-Fi down here."

"Of course there's Wi-Fi. It's a library."

Nardole touched something. "Reading chair with a safety belt?"

"What's CERN?" Bill asked.

"CERN?"

"The European Organization For Nuclear Research," the Doctor said. "The largest particle physics laboratory on this planet. Why?" He sat in said reading chair with safety belt.

Nardole moved beside Bill. "Because four hours ago, someone, that priest presumably, e-mailed them a copy of the Veritas translation from this computer."

"Remember what he said. He said, I sent it. He sent the Veritas."

"And CERN have just replied."

"What'd they say?"

"Pray for us." Bill shook her head. "When do a bunch of scientists ask for prayers?"

The Doctor swallowed. "The same time anyone does. When they're very, very afraid." Adelaide may have attempted to convince him of the opposite if she'd been there. But she wasn't here.

And even though the Doctor had done that intentionally to keep her safe, suddenly, he quite wanted her there with him.

Gently, the Doctor reached forward, stroking the cover of the Veritas. "Particle physicists and priests. What could scare them both?" Adelaide would be the expert if she was there.

"He's been down here for a while, that guy," Bill said, looking around. "Whoever he is."

The Doctor almost smiled. Bill really did need to spend more time with Adelaide. "At a guess, the missing translator." He soniced the Veritas cover.

"Oh, that's promising."

"Promising?"

"Yeah, at least one person read the Veritas and lived."

There was a gunshot behind them. The Doctor didn't need to turn to see the updates on the priest's life signs. "Go and see if he's all right. Both of you."

"I think we know he isn't."

The life signs terminated. "We know nothing of the kind. He might need help. He might have useful information. He's about fifty feet that way." The Doctor nodded in that direction.

"Are you trying to get rid of us?"

The Doctor looked toward Bill. "Why?"

"Because you're sending us into the dark, after a man with a gun," Nardole said.

"Ah, well," he shrugged, "I've thought of that."

"Thank you."

"Nardole, make sure that you walk in front of Bill."

Nardole groaned. "Oh, great."

"Are you going to read this? Is that why you're sending us off?"

The Doctor tapped the cover. "I won't read this without you."

"Really, he won't," Nardole confirmed.

"Promise?"

"Trust me."

Bill stepped back. "We'll shout if we need you."

The Doctor nodded. "Me too."

It took Bill another moment, but she and Nardole left the Doctor in the cage. Despite himself, he wished for Adelaide. He'd tried not to wish for Adelaide, knowing she would hate it. On his best days, it was easy not to wish for her, despite missing her. Despite wanting her. But sometimes it was too hard. Sometimes he couldn't help but wish for Adelaide to be beside him.

He reached over and closed the laptop Bill had found before returning to the Veritas. Gently, he opened it and pulled his small device box from his pocket, attaching two electrodes to his temples.

Time to see.

**A/N: We get a lot of the Doctor's insight on the entire situation here - he's really missing Adelaide, even when he tries to tell himself that he's not.**

**But hm...I wonder where Adelaide is in this simulation...**


	12. The Cause

**The Cause**

Bill resisted the urge to glance back at where they left the Doctor as she and Nardole walked away. "Does it give you the fear when he says trust me?"

Nardole sighed. "If I worked here, I'd cross myself." He held out a hand. "Bill, stay close by me, there's a man with a gun."

Bill stopped walking, but Nardole didn't quite notice, continuing to move forward. "Yeah, you don't actually have to do that." She frowned. "In fact, don't you dare do that." She moved forward, trying to walk past him, but Nardole touched her arm.

"Uh-uh-uh, Bill," he tsked. "You're to walk behind me now, like the Doctor said."

"Yeah, totally not happening."

Nardole turned, facing her properly. "Okay, Bill. Miss Potts." He removed his glasses and Bill almost took a step back at the severity of the expression. "I am the only person you have ever met, or ever will meet, who is officially licensed to kick the Doctor's arse. I will happily do the same to you, in the event that you do not align yourself with any instructions I have issued which I personally judge to be in the best interests of your safety of survival." He replaced his glasses. "Okay, Bill?"

"Okay."

"Good-o!" he started to turn again, but Bill spoke.

"What about Adelaide?" Nardole stopped turning. "Can you kick her arse?" He smiled, and somehow that was worse. "Nardole, are you secretly a badass?"

The smile shifted, but it was still there. "Nothing secret about it, baby doll." He looked forward and let out an involuntary whimper. There was a hand holding a gun sticking out around the corner, limp and clearly belonging to a corpse. "Well, that answers that question."

Behind them, there was a bright light, nearly blinding them both as they turned. Bill recognized it. "It's an opening, like we saw before."

Nardole nodded. "Yeah, like a portal."

They exchanged a look. "You're right."

"About what?"

"It would be stupid to go and look."

And yet, together, they walked towards the light.

|C-S|

The Doctor removed his sonic glasses and placed them in his inner pocket, moving slowly. Everything had to be done slowly after so long relying on his sight. He wondered how Adelaide would have dealt with this situation. If she would have managed utter darkness better than he could ever hope to.

Despite her fear, the Doctor was almost certain she would.

He used his sonic to turn on his device but heard a sound beside him. Without the sonic glasses, he had no clue who or what it was until they spoke. He was left to take a guess. "Cardinal Angelo? I could do with your help here?" The sound moved closer but did not speak. "I'm not absolutely sure how this is going to work. Either it's going to temporarily fix my eyesight, or it's going to burn out my brain. Just...er...give me a mo."

The Doctor took a breath and turned on the device. With a crack of electricity, he slumped in the chair.

|C-S|

Missy was so close to begging that, at a different time, she might have reached for him. "I am your friend."

The Doctor kept himself still. "Makes no difference."

"I know it doesn't. I know I'm going to die." Missy's eyes bore into him. Dug. "I have to say it, the truth. Without hope. Without witness. Without reward. I am your friend."

The Doctor pulled the lever. Energy surged from the four columns surrounding the dais into Missy and she collapsed. The Doctor had to turn from her. "On my oath as a Time Lord of the Prydonian Chapter, I will guard this body for a thousand years."

He did wonder, if it had been Adelaide they summoned, what she would have done. The body required guarding, but Adelaide never did like being told what to do.

|C-S|

That time, when the Doctor opened his eyes, there was light, but that was all. Everything was still shrouded in a haze of blur, to the point when, really, he couldn't see any better than when he simply saw dark. He removed the electrodes just as footsteps approached.

"Cardinal, it worked," he called out. "I can see. Not well enough, not yet. The thing about the universe is, whatever you need, you can always borrow, as long as you pay it back. I just borrowed from my future. I get a few minutes of proper eyesight, but I lose something. Maybe all my future regenerations will be blind. Maybe I won't regenerate ever again. Maybe I'll drop dead in twenty minutes. But I will be able to read this!" he placed a hand on the page of the Veritas. "Now, I have no idea how that is going to affect me, so I'd be a bit stupid to reject the precautions provided. Could you help me, please?" he almost wished he hadn't sent Bill and Nardole off. "Could you help me?" he felt the individual move closer, buckling the leather straps of the chair for him. "You know, I've read a lot of books that this chair would be quite useful for. Moby Dick." He shook his head. "Honestly, shut up, and get to the whale." The Doctor looked up as his vision sharpened, but still not to the point that he could see any true facts about the individuals before him. "You invited friends and family?"

Something touched his arm and it did not feel human. The Doctor's vision returned to him in a jolt and, when he looked up, he saw something very much non-human. It looked close enough – humanoid, in its own way, like a corpse or a mummy – but it was very clearly not of this Earth. "Oh, it's the old, old story. They never look so good in the morning." The figure that had touched his arm reached forward and closed the Veritas, moving it out of his reach, now that he was locked into the chair. "Goodbye to the truth? I came a long way to read that book! Two thousand years at the last count. If you don't want me to read it, you could have stopped me any time you wanted. Why the play-acting? This is not a game."

The corpse opened its mouth and spoke, though the voice was not entirely merely coming from there. It seemed to exist beyond the physical. "This is a game."

"Good, because I win." The Doctor needed only to pull out his sonic before all of the lights went out.

It seemed that even corpses were affected by darkness.

"Doctor!" the corpse cried, though it was less of a cry and more of a command. "Doctor!"

With a gesture, they returned the lights, but there was no Doctor to find anymore. He'd vanished from the cage, though Veritas remained.

"Doctor, we have the Veritas."

But the Doctor didn't mind, because he had the computer, and technology was always going to be better than old smelly books when impossible robed corpses were chasing you. He slid to the ground as he neared a quiet, empty period, opening the computer again. The email that the translator had sent out was easy to find but, as the Doctor began to scroll, his vision blurred again. "Oh no. Oh, no! No, not yet!" He looked up and, though his vision went back to black, he still saw the corpses approaching him. "No, no, no, no!"

He scrambled standing and ran to the front of the library, trying to find any way out in the dark, but knowing it was impossible. Death, or at least capture, was inevitable.

At least, until a bright light burst in. The Doctor stumbled towards it and into somewhere new. Though he couldn't see it, the Doctor knew it wasn't the Haereticum. He took a tentative step forward. "Hello?"

"I was wondering when you would come." Adelaide's voice shocked him, but not enough that he didn't notice that it was different. "Read the Veritas, Doctor." The Doctor found his sonic glasses in his pocket and put them on, immediately turning them to scan for life signs. There was nothing. She wasn't here. The voice, her voice, was a recording.

What had happened to Adelaide? Where had she gone?

This was her office, he knew that. He had not been in it often, but he recognized it, even in his newly returned darkness.

He would do as Adelaide bid. He would read the Veritas and hope that it would tell him where she'd gone. What had happened.

Hope it meant that she wasn't dead, though he knew, somewhere in the back of his hearts, in his mind, that she was. On any other day, that fact would have broken him. Shattered him, though he would have attempted to deny it.

The sheer truth that it had not, that he was fine, breathing, living, meant that something was wrong.

He needed the truth. He needed the Veritas.

|C-S|

When Bill emerged from the bright light, she did not recognize the room she found. While the Doctor had come to see Adelaide's office before, Bill had yet to have the chance. But she did still know it to be the Time Lady's. Could still sense it, especially after having been in Adelaide's TARDIS. This space was Adelaide's, but Adelaide was not in it.

The Doctor was. He sat at Adelaide's desk, chair pushed back as though he was keeping himself from touching anything that wasn't his. It occurred to Bill that he'd likely been scolded on that before. The Time Lady seemed the type to be touchy about what was hers.

"Bill, is that you?" he called, his voice careful.

"Hello, Doctor." Bill looked around. "Is this Adelaide's?"

"It was."

She turned on the lights. "Where is she?"

"Gone."

Bill focused on the Doctor again. "I take it she read the Veritas."

"I don't believe it was necessary, for her." He gestured at the laptop he'd placed on Adelaide's desk. "But I did. Well, I listened to it. There's this thing on here, it reads aloud to you. It's very useful. Who needs Nardole?" He frowned. "Where is Nardole?"

Bill remembered Nardole fading into pixels. Dissolving into nothing. Non-existing. "I need to know what's real and what isn't real."

"Don't we all?" the Doctor sighed. "Do you know, once Adelaide guessed that we were trapped in two dreams by a version of me made from psychic pollen. Never did explain how she knew. Always meant to ask. Could do with some tips now."

"Don't play games. Tell me."

The Doctor swallowed. "The Veritas tells of an evil demon who wants to conquer the world. But to do it, he needs to learn about it first. So he creates a shadow world, a world for him to practice conquering, full of shadow people who think they're real."

Bill nodded. "There was a thing. The shadow test?"

"If you're in doubt whether you're real or not, the Veritas invites you to write down as many numbers as you like, of any size, in any order, and then turn the page."

Bill remembered the scientist. "All the numbers in the same order."

The Doctor raised a hand to point at her, though it fell just as quickly. "Yes. Let's bring the story up to date, Bill. Imagine an alien life form of immense power and sophistication, and it wants to conquer the Earth. So it runs a simulation. A holographic simulation of all of Earth's history and every person alive on the surface. A practice Earth, to assess the abilities of the resident population. Especially the ones smart enough to realize that they are just simulants inside a great big computer game." Adelaide had realized before him. Bill wondered if the Doctor was put out by that. He didn't seem to. If anything, it seemed to make him more scared.

"But this is, this..." Bill stepped forward and knocked on Adelaide's desk, "this is real. I feel it."

"Computers aren't good with random numbers. If you ask a computer-simulated person to generate a random string of numbers, it won't truly be random. And if all the simulated people are part of the same computer program, then they'll all generate the same string. The same exact numbers."

Bill's eyes went wide. "The numbers. I said them, too."

The Doctor nodded. "I know. So did I. So did Adelaide. The trouble is, when simulants develop enough independent intelligence to realize what they are, there's a risk they'll rebel. Those deaths, they weren't suicide. Those were people escaping. It's like...er...Super Mario figuring out what's going on, deleting himself from the game because he's sick of dying."

Bill shook her head. "No, I'm real. I feel real!"

"Those pretend people you shoot at in computer games." He shrugged. "Now you know."

"Know what?"

"They think they're real. They feel it. We feel it."

Bill looked down at her hand and watched it turn into true pixels. She reached out for the Doctor. "Please, help me."

The Doctor stared at her, but he didn't move. "Bill, what's happening to you?"

"Save me." But then she was gone, and there was a corpse behind her.

The Doctor had no idea. After all, she'd vanished in silence. "Bill, are you there?"

"She was not real," the corpse said, and the Doctor recognized the voice. "You are not real."

"No, I'm not. I'm a shadow. A puppet Doctor for you to practice killing. Just like you made a puppet Adelaide for you to attempt, and fail, to fool."

"We have killed you many times."

Despite himself, the Doctor smiled. "But you've not quite managed to fool her, have you? Even a puppet Adelaide is too clever to fall for a simulation." He stood from her desk, properly facing where he knew the corpse to be. "What are you waiting for? Why don't you kill me now?"

"You suffer. Pain is information. Information will be gathered."

The Doctor spread his arms. "Turn me off. Turn me off! I have nothing. Not even hope." And then he paused because even in a simulation he remembered a doomed Time Lady kneeling on a dais and a lesson he'd always, somewhere deep inside him, wished Adelaide would learn. He pulled a diary from his jacket that he didn't quite remember ever putting in there. "Funny," he said, his voice quieter now. "I don't believe much. I'm not sure I believe anything. But right now, belief is all I am. Virtue is only virtue in extremis. I take it that your intention is to invade the Earth?"

"The simulations have been run. The Earth will be ours."

The Doctor was fairly certain that even a simulated Adelaide did not regret leaving the computer before she'd had a chance to face down these corpse puppeteers, but he did wish he could have been able to see – hear – what she would have said. "Well, consider this a warning on the eve of war. I am the Doctor. I am what stands between you and them."

"You are not the Doctor. You are not real."

The Doctor was glad that Adelaide kept her office clean as he moved around her desk. "Oh, you don't have to be real to be the Doctor, just like you don't have to be real to be Adelaide. Long as you never give up. Long as you notice everything. Long as you always trick the bad guys into their own traps. And here's the trap you fell into. Your simulation, it's far too good." The Doctor tapped his glasses. "Do you see these? They're set to record. I'm blind, you see, so I'm psychically wired into these, so my memory print of the last few hours will still be intact on here. Information about you!"

"You are not real." The corpse did not sound worried, but the Doctor didn't, honestly, expect them to. "There is nothing you can do."

"There's always one thing you can do from inside a computer. Even if you're a jumped-up little subroutine, you can do it. You can always..." he tapped the glasses again, "email!"

"What are you doing?"

"I'm doing what everybody does when the world is in danger. I'm calling the Doctor. Pressing send."

He grinned, and knew he had won.

|C-S|

The real Doctor leaned against the Vault door with his glasses off, hanging from his hand. The world was still dark. He still hadn't told Adelaide. Even if she knew how to find the Vault and could have easily come, if only to see Missy, he was using the Vault to hide from her.

He looked down as his glasses gave an alert and slipped them back on. There was a file. And a message.

_P.S. Dear Doctor, Save them. Tell her._

_The Doctor X_

|C-S|

Adelaide was standing in her TARDIS when her phone went off with an alert from the Doctor. That in itself was enough to make her stare. The two had each other's numbers, of course, but very rarely had they ever needed to call each other. Previously, Adelaide had always been the one monitoring the phones and, when she'd left, he'd never dreamt of calling her back before she was ready. Even after they'd started traveling again now, he never called.

"Yes, Doctor?"

"I have something to tell you."

"Then say it."

She almost heard his swallow. "It'd be best to do it in person. Can you come to the Vault?"

Adelaide paused. "What's wrong, Doctor?"

"Something's coming. Something very big, and something possibly very, very bad. And I have a feeling that we're going to be very busy very soon. And I will need to be very honest with you."

Adelaide didn't even bother walking to the Vault. She took her TARDIS directly to the outside entrance and hurried down the stairs. The Doctor, when she found him, was still sitting back against the Vault, his legs bent so that he could rest his arms on his knees. He was wearing his sonic glasses.

And though he did look at Adelaide when she approached, there was a hesitancy in the action, a deliberateness, that made her pause. "You're still blind, aren't you?"

The Doctor didn't grin, but he looked like something had been confirmed. "I knew you would be able to tell immediately." She rushed beside him, taking out her sonic to scan him, but the Doctor caught her wrist. "There's no point. Nardole and I, we tried. I can't fix it."

"Regenerate."

That time, he did laugh. "Of course that's your answer. But has it ever actually solved your problems?"

"Not directly. But it helped me find the true source of my problems." She let her hand fall, but the Doctor didn't release her wrist, not entirely. "Doctor, just regenerate. Just try."

"And what if I like this body? What if I don't want to die, just yet?"

"Then I would say that you were vain and immature."

He grinned. "We already knew that." He switched to holding her hand, moving slowly, almost as though he didn't realize it was happening. Didn't realize he was searching for comfort where he'd found it for centuries. "It's fine, Adelaide. I can manage."

"Manage is not enough. You can fix it. You should."

"It's not that simple..."

"Explain why." She squeezed his hand without thinking and didn't immediately regret it. "We've agreed to stop and discuss when we have a chance, Doctor. And while you've said something is coming – and I am very interested to learn how you know this fact – whatever it is, it is not here now. We have time. So explain."

The Doctor swallowed. "Regeneration...it feels like dying. To me. Everything I am dies. Some new man goes sauntering away, and I'm dead." Something shivered down Adelaide's spine as she remembered another man sitting across from her, discussing his impending doom. Desperately wanting to hold her hand, only it hadn't been her hand, not really. And yet it had. Just like every regeneration of the Doctor was the Doctor, and wasn't. "I'm allowed to be afraid. I'm allowed to want to live."

Adelaide had to stop herself from touching his cheek and she was very glad that his glasses, it seemed, weren't capable of proper sight, otherwise, he may have seen her hand start to move. "You foolish man."

There was a ping of the piano inside the Vault. Missy agreed.

|C-S|

When Missy's body didn't immediately move again, her two guards moved forward, making to take her arms, but she sat up before they'd even touched her, swatting. "Oi! Get off. Get off! I've just been executed. Show a little respect."

Given Rafando's expression, that was not what he expected. "She's...she's alive."

"I was just a bit sleepy, all right? Let's not split hairs." She glared at the Doctor briefly. "Shut up. Night-night." She closed her eyes, resting her head back on her arm.

"Of course she's not dead," the Doctor said, shrugging. "She's a friend of mine. I may have fiddled with your wiring a little bit."

"You swore an oath."

He nodded. "I swore an oath I'd look after her body for a thousand years. Nobody mentioned dead. Not technically a lie."

Rafando clenched his fists. "You cannot do this. You will not leave this planet alive."

"Do me a favor. The Fatality Index. Look up The Doctor."

Rafando did as requested. "You have an entry, just like any other sentient being."

"Under Cause of Death."

Rafando flicked something and even the Doctor could hear the ticks as it began to cycle through every way he had and would ever die. "You do seem to have an impressive record of fatalities credited to you." The ticks began to increase, moving faster. "A truly remarkable record." The guards began to retreat as well, looking between themselves in slight panic. "Where are you going? He's unarmed!" Rafando looked back to the Doctor. "You are unarmed?"

"Always."

"You stand alone?"

"Often." Especially now. And, he supposed, standing opposite someone didn't really count as standing together.

"You're the one who should be afraid."

The Doctor didn't grin. "Never."

Rafando gave a small nod. "Have a nice day, then." And then he turned and ran, fleeing from this madman and his new box.

The Doctor looked back down to Missy, but it was not to her that he spoke. "Nardole, help me move Missy to the Vault."

He was even more glad, now, that Adelaide hadn't been the one called. He may have not been able to stand being trapped in one place for the aforementioned a thousand years, but at least he was honest about it.

She liked to pretend nothing was wrong.

**A/N: I mean, did anyone doubt that simulated Adelaide would be one of the first people who figured out they were in a simulation? And the Doctor has finally told Adelaide that he's blind! They have begun to admit, even in small ways, that they still find comfort in each other's presence!**

**So much progress!**


	13. The Proposal

**The Proposal**

Adelaide leaned against the Doctor's TARDIS as she, again, watched his recording from inside the computer simulation. Though he was unable to see what the sonic glasses had been recording, they had still recorded the visible reality alongside the Doctor's memory print.

It was intriguing to think about the reality inside the computer simulation, especially when, apparently, Adelaide had known it was a simulation before the Doctor had. She'd tried to tell him that it had likely been because she could actually see, but he still claimed that she'd accomplished the impossible.

Until they found out, through the Doctor's end in her simulated office, that she'd been sent a copy of the Veritas by CERN – after all, the Doctor may have been on the Church's list, but Adelaide was on the scientists'. It was unclear if she'd actually recognized the simulation before receiving the Veritas translation, but the Doctor believed she had.

"Recognize them yet?" the Doctor called, sitting to the side with his guitar in his lap.

Adelaide replayed an image of the creatures again. She knew that she'd never encountered this exact species before – neither had the Doctor, which they'd determined by Adelaide's description of the creatures – but there was something familiar about them. "The shadow world..." She blinked. How had she missed that? The actions, the attire, their... "Oh, of course."

The Doctor straightened. "Of course what?"

"They're known as the Monks."

"You've met them before?"

"Heard of them. The few times their presence survived their evacuation, at least." She turned to face him. "They make a simulation of a planet to determine how easy the planet would be to conquer. Then they make their move."

He frowned. "Attack?"

"Not directly. If I remember rightly, they take advantage of an already existing worldwide catastrophe. It seems they are capable of seeing into the immediate future."

The Doctor nodded, picking at a small tune on his guitar. "The end of your life has already begun. There is a last place you will ever go, a last door you will ever walk through, a last sight you will ever see, and every step you ever take is moving you closer. The end of the world is a billion, billion tiny moments. And somewhere, unnoticed, in silence or in darkness, it has already begun."

Adelaide studied the Time Lord as someone knocked on his TARDIS door. He turned towards the sound, but Adelaide kept watching him. She was very glad that he couldn't see her, even if they were a proper distance apart.

"You talking to yourself in there?" Bill called, clearly the knocker.

"To Adelaide."

"You've been in there for hours. I've been trying to talk to you." Adelaide blinked at that, incredibly annoyed at herself for, clearly, having not been paying attention to her surroundings as she attempted to recognize the Monks. She didn't even know how much time had passed since she'd started. "Have you double-locked this thing?"

The Doctor stood, put his guitar to the side, and moved to take the sonic glasses, which Adelaide held out for him. She was careful not to let them touch, as though worried he would be able to tell her thoughts from the contact, as absurd as she knew that to be. "We were busy thinking." He slipped on the glasses. "Excellent," he mumbled at a volume only he and Adelaide could hear. "Who needs eyesight?"

"Remember those creatures the Doctor and I told you about?" Adelaide called to Bill. Though she respected – however stupid she thought it might be – the Doctor's decision to still keep his blindness secret from Bill, she had not permitted him to keep the simulation and immediate threat a secret as well. "They're called Monks."

The Doctor nodded. He was staring at Adelaide and she wondered if he was using memories to create a new face for her. "If they've modeled every event in human history, if they've simulated entire events streamed from day one till now, think what they'd know. Think what they could do with that."

"The UN called. They want you in Turmezistan immediately. Both of you."

The Doctor made a face, turning and making his way to the door. "Tell them no." He opened it, leaned out, and immediately stopped. Adelaide turned to look over his shoulder and sighed. She really hadn't been paying attention. They'd moved the TARDIS onto a plane she vaguely recognized from Missy's attempts at a Cyberman army gift. "Oh." Clearly, though the Doctor wasn't able to see details, he could still sense the change. Adelaide knew what the Doctor was capable of knowing now, thanks to her investigation of the sonic glasses' capabilities. The glasses could see the outline of shapes, even drastic differences in light, but true physical details were unknowable.

"They wouldn't take no for an answer," Nardole said, stepping into Adelaide's line of sight.

"Rude." The Doctor didn't step back as Adelaide came beside him. "How did they get it out of my office? The windows aren't big enough."

"Oh," a man, some kind of colonel, said. "They are now."

"Are you going to ask what's going on?" Bill asked.

The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS, looking around the space. "Last I heard, you were on a date with Penny. What happened?" Apparently, since the simulation had included Bill's date with the other human, the Doctor had decided it was a good idea to make that come to pass in their reality, despite the fact Adelaide hadn't thought that was actually a good idea.

"Er..." Bill exchanged a look with Adelaide, "the United Nations Secretary-General."

"Awesome."

Bill shook her head. "Nah, that wasn't a metaphor."

"Good, because I really wasn't following it."

"Mr. President, Madame Secretary, I'm very pleased to see both of you," an older man said as he entered the room. Adelaide guessed he was said Secretary-General. "I think we have something of interest." He held out a tablet. The pyramid on it made Adelaide suck in a breath, but the Doctor couldn't see anything.

"Why don't you tell me in your own words?" the Doctor asked him.

Thankfully, the Secretary-General didn't question the request. "It's a matter of a pyramid."

|C-S|

Surprisingly, the United Nations was actually willing to let the Time Lords – primarily Adelaide due to the Doctor's blindness – pilot the TARDIS down to the Pyramid. The Secretary-General even agreed to come down with them. Now, the assembled group stood looking at the massive pyramid in the not so short distance.

"Tell me what you see," the Doctor said, addressing them all.

"A five-thousand-year-old pyramid."

"What do you know?"

Bill looked the pyramid up and down. "It wasn't there yesterday."

Adelaide nodded. "Therefore?"

"It's not really a pyramid. It's something disguised as a pyramid, that just appeared out of thin air, and that's all way beyond human technology, so it's got to be alien. It's an alien space ship."

"Technically, it is a pyramid." Adelaide looked at Bill. "A pyramid is a geometric shape with triangular sides that converge on one point. That," she nodded at the pyramid, "is still a pyramid, even if it didn't originate on Earth, which it did not."

The Doctor grinned at that. "Mathematician and biologist."

"I am the clever one."

The colonel didn't seem overly amused, unlike Bill. "But what's it doing?"

"It could have chosen anywhere on this planet. It chose to sit on the strategic intersection of the three most powerful armies on Earth. So what it's doing, Colonel, is sending us a message."

"What message?"

"Bring it." The Doctor soniced the barrier and walked forward. Adelaide was very thankful that he did not offer her the chance to come along. She would have felt obliged to join him and would have hated herself for it. He knew that and respected it, even if he didn't understand or agree with it.

But she would, as they previously discussed, be able to give him updates on the situation. It would allow him to take advantage of her ability to 'notice everything' and 'use her eyes'.

"Mr. President?" the Secretary-General said, looking to Adelaide as though she would stop him.

"Sir? What are you doing?"

The barrier closed. "Bringing it." He tapped his sonic glasses and Adelaide raised her sonic, using it to transmit to him.

"What's he doing?" the Secretary-General asked Adelaide. "We don't know what that thing is capable of."

"Precisely why he," Adelaide nodded at the Doctor, "is the one going, and not you." She flicked on the sonic, which allowed her to speak to him and hear what he heard. "Nothing yet."

"What are you doing?" Bill asked her.

"I'm the clever one. I'm responsible for observations." Stones at the bottom of the pyramid began to move. "It's opening. Like a door." She took a step closer to the barrier. "One of the Monks is emerging." The creature looked exactly like what the Doctor had seen in the simulation.

"Hello?" the Doctor asked, speaking carefully.

"We know you."

"Then you'll know that there is a line in the sand, and I'm the man on the other side of it. You want to keep me that way."

"We will take this planet and its people."

"You will be prevented. You will be fought."

The Monk didn't seem bothered. "We will be invited. We will take this world. We will rule its people. But only when we're asked. We will talk again."

"The Monk is returning to the pyramid," Adelaide reported.

"When?" the Doctor asked it.

"At the end of the Earth."

"The stone closed." As Adelaide spoke, alerts sounded from every nearby device, including her phone. Everyone took their devices out to study. The clocks had changed.

"11:57 PM," the colonel said.

"Yeah, mine too."

"Everyone's is," Adelaide reported.

"What's that mean, 11:57?" Bill asked Adelaide.

"Also known as three minutes to midnight. The Doomsday Clock."

Nardole frowned. "The what?"

"A symbolic clock face begun by atomic scientists in 1947 that represents a countdown to possible global catastrophe. The closer the clock is to midnight, the closer the planet is to a global disaster. At the moment, it is set at three minutes to midnight."

Bill's eyes widened. "So now every clock in the world is the Doomsday Clock."

"Due to the Monks."

"Is this a threat?"

Adelaide watched the Doctor turn, beginning to make his way back to them. "I believe it's a warning. The Monks are not direct enough for threats. Somewhere, somehow, the end of your world has begun."

|C-S|

While the Doctor stood before the gathered world leaders, Adelaide sat at the table. She made herself be comfortable with it. Made herself be fine with it.

"Listen to me," the Doctor said, looking around at them as though he could see them. "Those creatures in that pyramid, they have studied your species, your civilization, your entire history. They've run a computer simulation of this world since you lot first slopped out of the ocean looking for a fight, and they have chosen this exact moment and this exact place to arrive. Why?"

"Because a war's about to break out?" Bill suggested.

The Doctor nodded. "Possibly. But whatever it is, they're right here, right now because they believe humanity will be at its weakest."

"Then we'll demonstrate strength," a Chinese representative, a woman named Xiaolian, said. "We will attack the pyramid."

Nardole, behind the Doctor, crossed his arms. "Force is never the answer. Isn't that right, Doctor?"

At that moment, the Doctor ignored Adelaide and Nardole. "Contact your masters. Coordinate your attacks."

Adelaide leaned forward. "Doctor, they will barely damage the pyramid. It's not worth the danger."

"But if they demonstrate strength and unity, they might choose to step away." He moved over towards Bill. "Bill, take that look off your face."

The human, whose expression very closely mirrored Nardole's, shook her head. "There's no look on my face."

"They did not come here in peace. We have to do what we can."

"Which does not mean attacking," Adelaide cut in, though the Time Lord still didn't look at her.

All of their phones rang again. "It's two minutes to now," Nardole reported.

"The Doomsday Clock is moving."

The Secretary-General looked between the Time Lords. "What do we do?" Adelaide clenched her jaw, but stayed silent, watching the Doctor.

"Coordinate your attacks."

At that, Adelaide stood and went to the Doctor's side as he turned to look at the pyramid. Bill, as she did so, went to talk to Nardole. "Doctor..."

"We don't have time to talk," he cut her off.

"It takes time to coordinate attacks," she said.

"Sometimes there's a time for violence."

"And that time isn't now." Adelaide took the Doctor's arm, forcing him to turn to her. "Doctor, we don't know what the Monks are capable of."

"You said they were waiting for the planet to destroy itself."

"I said I thought that's what they were doing. I've only ever heard stories, and those stories were heavily manipulated by faulty memories. The Monks mess with reality."

"Then we mess back."

Adelaide released the Doctor's arm and flexed her fingers. She did not turn as Bill stepped up, despite the human's obvious nervousness. "Did Nardole send you?"

"Might have done. Might have said there was something the two of you ought to tell me."

The Doctor swallowed. He'd turned back to the window as though it would help him see anything. "Funny thing, fear, isn't it? Once it rules you, you're even afraid to admit what's scaring you. For the record, I, for one, fully understand my weakness."

The lie was so strong that even the Doctor winced slightly at what he'd said. Before Adelaide could speak, a bright light burst from the top of the pyramid, briefly blinding the people in the room.

"Oh God," Bill gasped, "what's that?" The Time Lords didn't have to speak before they both turned on their heels and led the way out of the building and towards the pyramid as the rest of the humans communicated to their attackers. "So, why is the pyramid active now?"

"Possibly they know they're about to be bombed."

Adelaide sighed. "I did say that they seemed capable of seeing into the future."

They watched a plane approach the pyramid, but it got caught by the pyramid's light and was lowered to the ground. By the time it landed, three Monks were standing by it, having appeared out of nowhere.

"It's the Monks," Nardole said, frowning. "They've hijacked the plane. How did they do that?" The three Monks turned and returned to the pyramid. Three humans, looking to be the crew of the grounded plane, emerged, looking confused. "Oh, they're fine. The crew are alive."

Three more men emerged. "Who are those guys?" Bill asked.

"I think they're ours," the Russian representative, Ilya, said.

"Yours?"

"We targeted the pyramid with a missile." There was a whooshing sound and a thud, and then a submarine appeared on the ground. "From a submarine."

The Doctor nodded. "So demonstrating strength isn't going to help." Adelaide restrained herself from her expected remark, though she knew the Doctor understood what she would have said.

"We are ready to talk," a Monk said, heard even as far away as the group had stopped. Carefully, the Time Lords both gave a nod.

Xiaolian led the way to the pyramid, which the Monks have left open. Bill stepped closer to the Time Lords. "I mean, this is a trap, right?"

"Almost certainly."

"And we're just walking into it."

The Doctor shrugged. "Well, every trap you walk into is a chance to learn about your enemies. Impossible to set a trap without making a self-portrait of your own weaknesses."

"Great." Bill nodded. "Unless it kills us."

"Well, you could say that about anything." Behind them, the door closed.

A Monk was waiting at the end of the corridor. "The human race is about to end. The chain of events is already in motion. Life on Earth will cease by humanity's own hand. Observe." The Monk turned and the wall behind it opened, allowing it and the group to pass through.

The room beyond had more Monks, but they were all focused on what vaguely resembled a tree of bright fiberoptic cables.

"Ah," the Doctor nodded. "The simulation machine looks a bit different from the outside."

"We are modeling the future," the Monk explained. "Each thread is a chain of days, leading to your end. We can detect when a catastrophe is about to occur."

"And?"

"Stop it from occurring." Adelaide frowned at that. It did not match her understanding of the Monks.

The colonel looked the Monks over. "You don't look much like guardian angels."

"We have chosen this form to look like you."

That, if anything, horrified the colonel more. "You look like corpses."

"You are corpses to us. Your world is ending. You can do nothing, but we can save you."

The Doctor spread his arms. "Save us, then."

The Monk did not move. "To save you we must be asked."

"Then what?"

"We will protect you."

"For how long?" Adelaide asked.

"Forever."

Adelaide looked to the Doctor. "This is how the Monks work. Asking them for help has conditions. If they are invited in, it will be the last free action."

"If you do not ask for help, then see the days to come," the Monk said. Other Monks turned, freeing cables for the group to take. "These are the threads that lead to one year in your future. Take them as proof."

Everyone moved forward, even Adelaide, and took a cable. The destruction they saw...it did not match the established timeline for the destruction of Earth. Earth was meant to die, like all planets, but Adelaide knew it wasn't meant to be now. Not like this.

Vaguely, she heard the humans stepping back from the cables, gasping in their shock. She forced herself to focus on the Doctor's voice as he spoke. "Planet Earth with not a single living thing. Dead as the moon."

"You both seem pretty damn calm about it."

Adelaide released the cable a moment before the Doctor did. "It is not our first dead planet."

"Ask for help," the Monk said. "It will be given."

"Why do you need to be asked?"

"Power must consent."

The Doctor frowned. "Power must consent. What does that mean?"

"Those who hold power on this world must consent to our dominion."

"Why?"

Their phones rang again. "One minute to midnight," Nardole reported.

"You could take this planet in a...in a heartbeat." The Doctor shook his head. "Why do you need consent?" Normally, Adelaide loved consent, but this was not real consent. This was forced. A last attempt for salvation, chosen by the threatened out of desperation over any real love.

"We must be wanted. We must be loved. To rule through fear is inefficient."

The Doctor nodded. "Of course. Fear is temporary. Love is slavery."

The Secretary-General stepped forward. "If consent is what you need, I consent now."

Adelaide turned to him. "No, don't do this, Secretary-General. Do not even consider it."

"What I saw was real. I felt it. If you help us, I consent."

"Please, listen to her!" the Doctor tried.

The Monk stepped up to the Secretary-General and shined a light on him, though the true source of light was unseen. "Do you have power?"

"I have power."

"Does power consent?"

"Please, stop. Just stop this."

The Monk did not pay attention to him. "If your consent is impure, it will kill you."

Adelaide frowned. "Impure? Do you mean..."

"You act out of fear," the Monk said, and it served as an answer to Adelaide's unfinished question. "Fear is not consent." The Monk touched the Secretary-General's forehead and turned him into dust. The humans gasped in horror.

The Doctor's expression hardened. "Planet Earth does not consent to your help, your presence, or your conquest. Thank you for playing the big pyramid game. Bye, bye." He waved. "See you again next week, hopefully not."

"Without our help, Planet Earth is doomed."

"Yes? Well, it's been doomed before. Guess what happened? Me!"

And for one of the only times in her long life, Adelaide was thankful for the Doctor and his knack for interference.

**A/N: The Monks really are terrible for Adelaide to face. Weaponizing consent, too involved with time...**


	14. The Deal

**The Deal**

They returned to the base, the Doctor frowning the entire time. "Why do they need consent?" he mumbled.

"Maybe they're like vampires," Bill said. "Can't come in unless they're invited."

"They're not vampires."

"The future we saw," Xiaolian asked. "Is it the war? Do we bring that future about?"

"That is a possible conclusion," Adelaide admitted.

Xiaolian shook her head. "No. I say, no." She turned to Ilya. "Friend, I will not fight you."

"We are just soldiers in the field."

"Are we too afraid to disobey?"

The colonel stepped forward. "I'm not." He shook Xiaolian's hand.

"Neither am I." Ilya shook Xiaolian's hand.

"This is amazing," Bill said.

"What do you think, Mr. President and Madame Secretary?" The colonel asked the Time Lords. "Did we just give peace a chance?"

"The clock," Adelaide said in answer, already knowing the truth without looking.

"I'm sorry?"

"Look at the clock."

Nardole did it for them. "It's still one minute to midnight."

Xiaolian frowned. "It made no difference. How could this make no difference?"

"You are not the ones responsible for the end of the world," Adelaide told them. "You were not the true problem."

"Then who is the problem?"

"Something is happening somewhere else," the Doctor said. "Somewhere in the world, in silence or in darkness, the world is ending right now. And we have to find out where."

"That is impossible," the colonel scoffed. "We can't search a whole planet in a few minutes."

The Doctor turned to Adelaide, and she crossed her arms. "The true possibilities can be found by following logical conclusion," she said. "They landed the pyramid in the middle of a military crisis. Showed us the end of your world. The effect? You assumed World War Three would happen. You assumed that they'd helpfully provided you the answer and then, once you'd solved the problem, you'd be able to wave them goodbye. As though it would be that simple." Bill's cheeks went a little red. "It was misdirection so blatant I'm shocked none of you rather clever people noticed."

"You didn't notice either," Bill pointed out.

"I noticed. No one listened." Adelaide let her arms fall back to her side. "Your world is filled with potential catastrophes. Other than war, what else could end the world? Broad categories first."

Nardole paused, thinking. "Bacteria."

Adelaide nodded at him. "Potential. Likely."

"New strain of flue?" Xiaolian guessed. "Plague?"

She shook her head. "Immunity is possible and plague is limited to creatures. This threat must kill all life on Earth." She paused. "But the idea presents a valid angle. It's a mistake. If it was something you meant to develop, you would be aware of the threat and it would be easy to find once we realized the threat wasn't war. If it was a mistake, it's more likely destruction would come before we found the source, and thus more likely that you would turn to the Monks for protection." She pulled her sonic out and pointed across the room to a nearby computer terminal.

Ilya's eyes widened. "What are you doing?"

"Though you shouldn't be directly aware of the threat, something with the potential to be that dangerous would, hopefully, already be on a watch list in some form. Still possible that it's not, but we should eliminate known potential dangers first." She moved the sonic's aim to a different terminal. "I'm setting all relevant documents for all of your access. We're going to have to attempt to brute force this."

When she looked to the Doctor, she found the Time Lord grinning.

|C-S|

While the humans and Adelaide searched through the documents, the Doctor, unable to help, sat to the side. The colonel walked up to him and, if Adelaide wasn't so focused, she may have scolded him for stopping his search. "Doctor, listen."

The Doctor turned his head towards the man. "What?"

"Isn't it worth at least considering doing the deal?"

"What deal?"

"All we have to do is consent."

The Doctor shrugged. "That's what the Secretary-General thought. They burned him."

"He was afraid. I'm not being afraid, I'm being smart."

"Yeah, you're not being smart. Adelaide is being smart." The Doctor sat up in his chair and flicked something on his glasses, transmitting to her own sonic. Thankfully, it successfully drew her attention. "Any new ideas?"

She looked thankful for the momentary reprise from staring at a screen. He knew that, though she didn't tend towards solving by speaking aloud, it had never hurt for them to bounce theories off of each other, particularly when she was having some difficulty. "An accident that can lead to irrevocable consequences...likely bacteria."

The Doctor nodded. They were looking too broad right now, they needed more of a focus. "I like bacteria. They can spread."

"And once they've breached containment, they cannot be contained again. Most life on Earth relies on air, water, and food."

"And beer," Nardole mumbled.

"Biochemical?" Adelaide offered. "New, fast, entirely human?"

Nardole nodded, returning to his computer. "Yes, ma'am."

"Doctor," the colonel tried again. "That world was dead a year from now. We should at least go in there and talk."

"There are about a hundred thousand biochemical trials going on right now," Nardole reported.

"Specifically GM bacteria."

"Er...six thousand?"

Adelaide drew in a sharp breath. "How many have reached stage two?"

"You cannot accept their offer," the Doctor told the human.

"Why not?" Ilya asked. That time, he was saved from a glare from Adelaide due to her focus on theories.

"Because whatever the price is, it's too high."

The colonel shook his head. "We'll work it out."

"Four hundred and twenty-eight."

"It's too many," Xiaolian said, "and we don't even know if you're right."

"She always is," the Doctor spoke quickly, not allowing Adelaide any chance to speak. "Adelaide is the clever one."

"And what proof do we have of that?" the colonel snapped.

"There's no time for proof," the Doctor said. "It's your planet. I can't just give it away."

The colonel crossed his arms. "You know what, sir? Finally, you've said something I agree with. It's our planet. Our choice."

"You can't make a deal with them," Adelaide told him. "You don't know what you're agreeing to. It would be an uninformed choice."

"All I know is I plan on living to fight another day. Right now, what we don't have is a whole lot of other days." The colonel looked to the other military leaders for support.

"Agreed," Xiaolian said.

"Also agreed."

Bill stood and moved towards the Time Lords. "Doctor, Adelaide, is it just possible that they're right?"

"It would be a solution," Adelaide admitted. "But that doesn't make it right."

"All these soldiers in the room and you two are the only ones still fighting," Bill said.

The Doctor tightened his jaw. "Would you make the deal? Even not knowing what's going to happen?"

"Those guys have modeled every event in human history to find our weak spot. Are you going to do the same in a couple of minutes?"

"Would you make the deal?"

Bill shook her head. "No. Not if I had a choice. But we don't, do we?"

"It's your world."

"Not anymore," the colonel said. He stepped away from the Time Lord. "Okay, back to the pyramid and negotiate our surrender." All representatives of the military walked away and left the room.

Bill watched them leave. "What are you going to do?"

The Doctor looked towards Adelaide before sighing. "Well for a start, I'm going to tell you the truth. I've been keeping a secret from you." He raised a hand to his glasses and froze, mouth falling open. Adelaide frowned at him.

"Doctor?" Bill asked, concerned.

"We can blind them." The Doctor turned to Adelaide. "That's how we do it. We blind them!" Adelaide's own eyes widened. She may be the clever one, but brute force had always been his specialty.

Overturn the chessboard.

"Blind who? The Monks?"

"Bill, go to the pyramid. Keep an eye on them all. Nardole, with me and Adelaide. To the TARDIS."

Nardole nodded, rushing toward where they'd left the TARDIS. "Yes, sir."

"Have you got a plan?"

Adelaide followed the Doctor out. "I'll call you," she told the human.

|C-S|

The Time Lords stood beside each other at the Doctor's TARDIS console, with Nardole opposite them. "This is a list of labs on UNIT's watch list," Adelaide told the humanoid. "There will be CCTV feeds to each of them sent to UNIT HQ. Can you hack them?"

Nardole looked slightly offended she didn't believe in him. "Course I can, I'm not just sexy. But there's four hundred and twenty-eight of them. We can't watch them all."

"Then it is good that we're to going to watch them. We're going to turn them off."

"What good would switching them off do?"

The Doctor pointed at Adelaide, looking proud. "If Adelaide is right, the Monks are only watching one of those labs. How would they do that?"

"Well, I suppose they'd just hack the cameras."

The Doctor nodded. "So switch 'em off."

Nardole did so with a few quick keys at the console. "Okay, so, we've blinded them. But whatever's happening is still happening."

"Yep."

"And the Monks are powerful. They can just turn the cameras back on."

Adelaide raised her eyebrows. "Yes, they can. But they are only watching one. So which lab just got its cameras turned back on?"

Nardole looked back to the screen and widened his eyes. "Oh, you genius!"

"Yes, she is," the Doctor said.

"To be fair, this was your idea," Adelaide told him, and the Time Lords smiled at each other.

|C-S|

When they landed in the lab, Adelaide was reminded of how much she liked proper labs. St Luke's had good labs, but nothing as proper as this.

The only person in the room, a young woman in a hazard suit, turned and jumped back in shock. "Oh, my God!"

"No, I'm the Doctor, but it's an easy mistake to make." The Doctor gestured at his face. "The eyebrows."

"How did you do that?" the woman looked at the TARDIS. "What is that thing?"

"It's Nardole," the Doctor said, assuming that was what the woman was referring to. "He's not my, or Adelaide's, fault." He turned to the humanoid. "Back to the TARDIS. This place is toxic."

"I'm not human."

"Oh, you're human enough." The Doctor waved a hand. "I got your lungs cheap."

Nardole groaned. "Oh, now he tells me."

"Park her close. Monitor us." The Doctor began to turn away but paused. "Oh, tidy up your room." Nardole just went back into the TARDIS.

Adelaide faced the scientist. "You have an issue?"

"Who the hell are you two?"

"We already introduced ourselves. Pay attention. Move on to the explanation of your problem." The Doctor looked shocked at Adelaide's rudeness, but there was no time for pausing.

They had to stop the end of the world.

|C-S|

Adelaide called Bill after the scientist had explained what had happened in this lab. She stepped to the side in order to update the human, taking advantage of the pause to recollect her ideas. "We found it. A lab on Yorkshire. Essentially, there was a misplaced decimal point that created a bacteria that turns any living thing it touches into what the Doctor has named 'gunk'."

"So why is it going to end the world?" the colonel asked, speaking through Bill's phone. "Has it been dispersed already?"

"At the moment, it is still in the lab. The Doctor and I should be able to contain it." She lowered the phone and turned back to the scientist and the Doctor. "Continue."

"We have an air filtration system to take toxins out of the air," Erica explained, showing them the system on a computer. "It runs a cycle every thirty minutes. It's going to pump the bacteria into the atmosphere."

"So switch it off."

"I can't."

The Doctor nodded. "Oh. Right, okay, when's the next cycle?"

"Twenty minutes."

The Doctor looked horrified. "What!"

Adelaide raised the phone again. "The venting system is automatic. This may take longer than previously thought." She didn't have to look at her phone to know the Doomsday clock moved again.

The Doctor began to pace. They'd swapped roles again – Adelaide had taken charge of theorizing and finding the threat, but now it was the Doctor's turn to lead in neutralizing it. "Think. Think, think, think, think..." he hit his forehead. "Stupid Doctor. Stupid, stupid, stupid..." he paused and looked to Adelaide, though he didn't seem aware that he was doing that. "Handsome Doctor. Adorable, highly intelligent, but still approachable Doctor." He grinned. "What's another way to destroy bacteria?" he turned to the side and grabbed a bundle of wires.

"Sterilization," the scientist said.

"And how do you sterilize something?"

"Put it in boiling water."

Adelaide eyed the wires. "Or..."

The scientist's eyes widened. "Put it in a flame."

The Doctor laughed. "She's got it. By George, she's got it!" He grabbed a thermos from a desk. "I'm not going to lie to you. This means that your insurance premiums are going to go through the roof. In fact, pretty much everything is going to go through the roof because I'm going to blow up the lab."

Adelaide looked around the space. "There will need to be a trigger..."

"But what are you going to blow it up with?" the scientist asked, before pausing. "The bacteria is making ethanol. The greenhouse and the lab are full of it!"

The Doctor glanced back at the scientist. "Seriously, what are you doing when this is all over?" he looked up at Adelaide. "Receiving applications for assistants?"

"Focus."

That made him laugh, briefly, before working on the bomb.

|C-S|

The Doctor held the bomb as the scientist tapped on the finishing touches. Adelaide pushed herself back from the computer, having spent time looking into the bacteria they were attempting to fight. "Is this going to work?" the scientist asked.

"Trust me. I pop it in there. Machine goes ping. Lab goes boom. World is saved. You develop a pretty intense crush on me." Erica stepped back. "Okay. Adelaide and you go through to the machine room. You're going to have to let me back in when I'm done." He stood. "How long before the vents kick in?"

"Four minutes." The scientist moved back, gesturing for Adelaide to follow her. The Time Lady did not like the idea of leaving the Doctor to explode the lab, especially when he was blind, but he had refused to allow Adelaide to be the one responsible. She'd tried to make him, very briefly, but the Doctor had refused to listen.

He was going to be fine. He kept saying he was going to be fine. Adelaide had to keep hearing it in order to believe it.

To distract herself further, she lifted up the phone to Bill again. "Adelaide, you still there?" Bill asked her.

"There is a way to stop the lab venting, so the Doctor is going to sterilize the building by blowing it up. Everything inside will be destroyed." She glanced over her shoulder and, though she saw the fact the TARDIS was gone, she did not properly register it.

"Including you two?"

"Hopefully not. But potentially."

"You're really going to let him do it?"

"Of course I am."

"Because they're still offering a deal, and I'm the only one left."

Adelaide's grip tightened on the phone. "Tell them no." But then she paused. "Clarify consent, Bill."

"What does consent mean?" Bill asked, speaking a little away from the phone.

"You must ask for our help, and want it, and know you will then be ours. Only then can the link be formed."

"What link?"

"Do you consent?"

The scientist took Adelaide's arm and pulled her through the airlock. She stepped to the side once they were through, attempting to remember everything she knew about the Monks.

"Can you hear me?" the scientist asked the Doctor, using an intercom.

"I don't even know your name."

The scientist smiled. "Erica."

"Did you always want to be a scientist, Erica?"

"Since I was about eight. Before that, I wanted to be a bus driver, because I liked how they waved at other bus drivers."

The Doctor placed his bomb and prepped the final wires, setting the timer. "Okay, I've given us two minutes."

Erica gestured for him. "Right, you need to get out of there."

He started the countdown and rushed into the first airlock with a grin. "Hello, I'm the Doctor, saving the world with my eyes shut."

There was a gasp from the phone on Bill's end. "Adelaide, the clock's going back. Have you done it?"

Adelaide turned back to the Time Lord. "Yes, he has."

The Time Lord was already celebrating. "I'm totally the President of Earth, and from now on, two planes! One for me and one for my glamorous assistant, Erica!"

"I thought she was going to be my assistant."

"Sorry, Adelaide, I'm taking her." He gestured towards Erica. "Say hello to the folks at home, Erica, and let me through the door. Bill, get the hell out of that pyramid!" he looked ready to laugh.

"I can't open it," Erica said, still smiling. "It's under emergency protocol. You need to use the combination lock. Set it to 3614."

At that moment, Adelaide felt the ground fall from out of her. She couldn't breathe. The world went silent. Something wined in the back of her mind. The phone dropped from her ear.

No. No, no, no, no...

She should have asked. Should have checked...

"Ah, you're going to have to guide me," the Doctor's voice cut through the shock.

"I can't see it from here," Erica said, only just managing to understand the issue. "You can see it, right?"

"How long have I got?"

"One minute forty. 3614." Erica gestured for the Doctor to hurry. "Come on."

"Adelaide, what's happening?" Bill asked, her voice seeming far too loud for someone speaking from a phone so far away. "You okay?"

Adelaide swallowed. Her throat was tight. "There's been a problem."

"What's the problem? Adelaide, talk to me."

"The Doctor needs to open the door." Adelaide was staring at the Doctor. Her feet didn't seem capable of moving. "He can't see the numbers."

"One minute twenty," Erica prompted.

"I don't understand the problem," Bill said.

"There is a combination lock. The Doctor can't see numbers."

He looked up towards her. "Adelaide! You need to do a visual on the lab. There's a camera in here. If you got into the TARDIS..."

"The TARDIS isn't here." Adelaide had seen it the moment she and Erica had moved through the airlock, but it hadn't stuck, it hadn't registered what that could mean. "I don't know where Nardole is, but he is not here."

The Doctor tapped the sonic glasses. "Nardole! Nardole? Nardole, can you hear me?"

"I don't understand the problem," Bill said. "Doctor, just open the door."

"I can't."

"Why can't you?"

"Because I'm blind. I'm sorry, I'm blind."

No, no, no, no, no...

"What...what do you mean, blind? What are you talking about?"

"I lied." He was still looking at Adelaide. "I've been blind since Chasm Forge. I didn't get my sight back. I've been lying to you. There's a combination lock with numbers, and I can't see them."

"You're an idiot," Bill said. "You are the stupidest idiot ever! And so are you, Adelaide! But I'm not going to let the Doctor die."

"No, you have to," the Doctor's voice hardened. He was forcing Adelaide to keep paying attention on him. "There's no choice. No-one else can help me now."

And Adelaide wished that wasn't true. She wished she could have done something. But once the Doctor had entered the airlock, she could not open the door from the outside and he could not go back through to allow her to help. He was trapped. He was going to die.

"The Monks," Bill breathed. "The Monks can help you."

"No!" the Time Lords said in unison. "Bill, no," Adelaide pulled the phone back to her ear. "Bill, don't do that."

"I'm sorry."

"A mistake was made. We have to face that. But please, Bill, do not ask the Monks for help." It hurt Adelaide to say that. She wanted nothing more than to beg the Monks to save the Doctor. And that terrified her.

It was visceral, everything she was feeling at that moment. Nothing rational. Everything she hated, all bundled into one terrifying mass. The Doctor was in danger. The Doctor was going to die. And despite everything Adelaide had ever thought about the Time Lord, despite every argument and disagreement, she wanted him to live.

And she knew that, at that moment, without a doubt, even after everything, she had never stopped loving him. But now she was going to lose him. She had to lose him. For good. She would lose him because she loved him.

"Bill, please, listen." Her voice was breaking and the Doctor didn't need to see her face to see her tears, as few as there were. "I don't know what consenting will allow them to do to you. You don't know what you're agreeing to." There was only silence. "Bill, do not make the deal. Please, do not do it." Still, silence.

Then, it was like the universe was moved slightly out from under Adelaide's feet and she stumbled, still staring at the Doctor.

In the airlock, slowly, the Doctor lowered his glasses and raised his hand. Adelaide watched his eyes focus and watched him look down and watched him do the code – so easy, now – and watched him step through and watched him come towards her and watched him take her hand.

"Bill, what have you done?"

There was an explosion, and the world went white, but Adelaide kept the Doctor's hand.

**A/N: These two have a terrible habit of realizing how much they still love each other right when they're facing certain death.**


	15. The Solution

**The Solution**

_The first and only time Adelaide had visited Missy was with the Mexican food in hand, after solving the mystery of Bill's new home._

_Adelaide took in the entire vault as the door opened. It was larger than she expected, though very sparse. There were a few chandeliers – Missy's request, no doubt – and what looked like windows providing light, but the furniture was scattered about. In the center, on the top of an octagonal dais with pillars surrounding it, was a piano and Missy._

_The other last Time Lady was still playing the piano, but Adelaide knew that Missy was highly aware of Adelaide's new presence in the room. Her back was turned to them, her body focused on her movement over the keys, but her head tilt, just slightly._

"_Hello, Missy," Adelaide said._

_Missy turned then. Her pale eyes, open and honest for a moment in a manner that shocked Adelaide before it returned to what she expected of the Time Lady, locked onto Adelaide's. "Why, lookie here. The protector has come to visit little old me." Missy pressed a hand to her chest, giving a small smile. "No wonder they called you first. You already have the right title."_

_Adelaide ignored the Doctor's slight shock at that admission. "Did they tell you they were trying me?"_

"_No. I didn't know for certain until now." Missy stood. "But it makes sense. You are the protector, after all." She nodded to Adelaide. "And possess much less of an obvious emotional connection to me, though we all know that you love me." She winked._

_Very few people, after all, knew that Adelaide had helped Missy escape the Time War. "You look well for someone who was meant to be executed."_

_Missy shrugged. There was a severe elegance about the action. "Your sweetheart saved me. Although..." she looked between the Time Lords and how much distance there was between them, even now, "not sweethearts any longer." She shook her head. "Knew it would happen eventually."_

_The Doctor raised his eyebrows, moving forward to put the food on the small table set before the dais. "Did you now? You were the one who told us we were Aligned."_

"_Aligning doesn't mean you're sweethearts," Missy said, speaking slowly both to mock and give the words emphasis. "I would have hoped you understood that fact by now." She focused on Adelaide again, stepping down from the dais with something feral in her gaze._

"_I understand that you wanted to thank me?"_

_Missy nodded. She'd stopped about a foot away from Adelaide. "Yes, I said something akin to that to the eyebrows quite a bit. Good to know that he actually listens." There was a pause before Missy held out a hand for Adelaide to shake. "Thank you for helping me escape Gallifrey." Adelaide didn't immediately take the offered hand. "The Doctor has made it quite clear that you don't like hugs and I'm being taught to respect people's personal boundaries." Missy wiggled the fingers of the extended hand._

_Adelaide could not help but smile. She took the hand. "Thank you, Missy."_

_Missy used the held hands to step closer to Adelaide, whispering in her ear. "He doesn't remember Clara Oswald. Do not mention her directly." When Missy drew back, it was Adelaide's turn to watch her with wide eyes, though Missy pressed a finger to her lips. "Now, let's eat."_

"_Missy..."_

_Missy waved a hand. "Later, lovely protector. I still have quite a bit of time left in this vault. There's time yet for girly gossip." She winked at Adelaide._

|C-S|

When it came time for recordings to be made for the people of Earth, it was decided that the Doctor was the best choice. He was also the one they declared the best for actually writing the speeches. Adelaide would offer a few word choices where she could, but she had never been a particular master of language.

She stood behind the camera as the Doctor spoke, her arms crossed. Adelaide had found herself doing that quite a bit over the past six months.

"The Monks have been with us from the beginning. They shepherded humanity through its formative years, gently guiding and encouraging, like a parent clapping their hands at a baby's first steps," the Doctor said. The Monks would be overlaying images to this transmission, as they did with most. "They have been instrumental in all the advances of culture and technology. They watched proudly as man invented the light bulb, the telephone, and the internet. They were even there to welcome the first men on the moon. And they have defended us too. Who can forget the time the Monks defeated the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Weeping Angels? Two species, sharing a history as happily as they share a planet, humanity and the Monks are a blissful and perfect partnership. How luck Earth is to have an ally as powerful and tender as the Monks, that asks for nothing in return for their benevolence but obedience. So relax, do as you're told. Your future is taken care of." The Doctor finished the transmission with a grin.

Adelaide waved a hand to cut off the recording. Normally, Nardole would have been responsible for this job, but that humanoid wasn't currently available to man the cameras.

"How was it?" the Doctor asked, leaning back.

"You've quite lost your charming grandfatherly qualities."

"Are you saying I'm charming?"

"You were charming. The keyword there is 'were'."

The Doctor stood. He was fully embracing his refreshed ability to see, focusing on Adelaide's face. She still remembered his expression when the white light had cooled and the alternate history of the Monks in control had settled in.

The Doctor had blinked and turned his gaze until it landed on her. It had taken another moment for his gaze to focus, adjust, and then they'd widened. As though he'd forgotten what she looked like. As though he'd realized something for the first time in a long time.

She'd still been holding his hand and he'd squeezed it as though he wanted to pull her closer into an embrace. For a moment, something had seemed to stop him and Adelaide had a guess what that something was. So she was the one who moved forward and hugged him.

They clung to each other in their new reality and, over the past six months, had yet to stop.

"How are you doing?" the Doctor asked Adelaide now, moving closer to her. He reached out and took her hand. They were alone due to Adelaide's request despite the fact the Doctor had deprogrammed the majority of the guards assigned to them. They hadn't actually expected the Monks to agree to the Time Lords being alone for any length of time, but Adelaide had made it clear that she essentially needed to be solitary in order to work well.

That was a lie, of course. Adelaide and the Doctor merely liked being alone together, when they could manage it. Especially now, when the other was the only one they truly had left. It was how they'd been ever since Adelaide had first emerged from her fob watch, even when they'd been separated.

"You're truly certain Nardole will manage this?"

"He will proudly tell you that he is the only person licensed to kick my arse."

"I didn't realize someone needed permission to do that." The Doctor squeezed Adelaide's hand. "He'll be fine. Bill will be fine."

"I just wish that I remembered more about the Monks." If the Time Lords had known more about how the Monks had gained control over Earth, they would be able to depose them. They wouldn't have needed to bother about seeming loyal over the past six months. The deal may not have needed to be made – by Bill, for the Doctor's sake – at all.

The Doctor lightly smiled. "You don't have to know everything, Adelaide."

"That doesn't mean I won't try." It was her turn to squeeze his hand and she pulled him towards the camera. "Now, come see your lack of charming grandfather qualities. Even if they're being brainwashed, it's not wise to frighten the people of Earth."

"That's why you're not the one doing the speeches, after all."

Adelaide did not give the Doctor the kindness of a smile.

|C-S|

"Over the years, I have encountered innumerable civilizations, but never one as benevolent as the Monks," the Doctor focused on his paper. Adelaide glanced back at the door that, if everything was going by plan, Nardole and Bill would shortly be coming through. "Their grace and humility. No, their grace and philanthropy is matched only by their..."

The door opened and both Time Lords looked up, the Doctor matching Adelaide's expression. "Doctor? Adelaide?" Bill said, looking between them, hopeful. "It's me."

"Guards!" the Doctor called as he straightened, moving closer to Adelaide. Eight of their guards rushed into the room from the door opposite Bill, pointing their weapons at Bill. "What are you doing here?"

Bill spread her arms. "What does it look like? We've come to save you."

Adelaide looked to Nardole. It was uncomfortable lying as they were, but it was necessary. They had to push Bill to ensure she was fully conscious and not still brainwashed by the Monks. "This was your idea, wasn't it?" Back to Bill. "You shouldn't be here."

"I'll have to talk to the Monks now," the Doctor said, nodding.

"Doctor..."

He held a hand towards the human. "Stop. Don't. Don't move. They will kill you. Stay where you are." He picked up the telephone from his desk. "Epsilon. Fire. Jupiter. Lily." He replaced it, moving back closer to Adelaide. "The Monks are on their way. When they get here, let me do the talking."

"Wait, what was that? Did you actually just call them, you nutter?"

Adelaide smoothed her face, but she made it clear it was intentional. "You deserve an explanation." Bill nodded. "Human society is stagnating. You've stopped moving forward. You were regressing."

"This isn't exactly much better."

The Doctor shrugged. "It's safer."

"Not so much for the people the Monks are killing."

"The Romans killed people and saved billions more from disease, war, famine, and barbarism."

Bill shook her head. "No, wait. What about free will? You believe in free will. Your whole thing is, both of you. You," she pointed at the Doctor, "made me write a three-thousand-word essay on free will."

It was Adelaide's turn to shrug. "Perhaps our opinions have adapted. Your species had free will and multiple negative examples of what that meant."

"Worse than that, you had history. History was saying to you, look, I've got some examples of fascism here for you to look at. No? Fundamentalism? No? Oh, okay, you carry on. Adelaide and I had to stop you, or at least not stand in the way of someone else who wanted to, because the guns were getting bigger, the stakes were getting higher, and any minute now it was going to be goodnight, Vienna." The Doctor started to turn but paused. "By the way, you never delivered that essay, anyway."

"Because the world was invaded by zombie Monks!"

"And whose fault was that, huh?" The Doctor narrowed his eyes. "I didn't ask for my sight back. No, you took it upon yourself to ignore me, to do what you thought was best." He shook his head. "All I can say is that we are lucky it was a benevolent race like the Monks, not the Daleks." He held up a hand. "Yes, I know the Monks are ruthless. I get that. Yes, they play with history and we, especially Adelaide, are not exactly thrilled about that. But they bring peace and order."

Bill crossed her arms. "Okay. Yeah, yeah, I get it. It's like the time we discovered that huge fish creature in the...in the Seine in Paris."

"You couldn't think of any other river?" Adelaide asked her before glancing at the guards. "It was a coded message. The big fish creature – I'm still working on determining its actual species name – was under the Thames. If the Doctor and I had played along, she'd have known we were tricking you."

"Guns down," the Doctor ordered. Bill looked close to crying. He sighed. "I'm sorry, Bill. I just...I just...I really want to make you see."

"This...this is real?" Bill gestured between the Time Lords and the guards. "You...you're actually...you're actually doing this? Do you have any idea how hard the past few months have been? How hard it's been to hold onto to the truth? It would have been so easy to just...just...just give in and believe their lies. But I didn't. I fought against it, for you! For when you two came back. And now you're saying you've joined them? You're helping them?"

Bill turned and grabbed a weapon from a guard nearby, pointing it at the Time Lords. Since they were next to each other, she easily alternated between the two, but the Doctor was quick to stand and move in front of Adelaide. The other guards pointed their weapons at the human again. "Bill, put...put...put the gun down."

"I'm serious, Doctor. We'll think of something else. But you'd better tell me now, because if you two help the Monks, then nothing will ever stop them. They'll be here forever."

The Doctor hardened his expression. "It's not a trick, it's not a plan. We have joined the Monks. Whatever it takes, Adelaide and I are going to save you from yourselves."

That, as guessed, was the tipping point. Bill fired three shots into the Doctor's chest and then, after a pause, two more. He fell to his knees, clutching his chest, and Adelaide took a step back. When regeneration energy started to flow from his hands, Adelaide hated how real her terror was, even if she knew it was supposed to happen. She wondered if this was anything like how the Doctor had felt when Adelaide had let herself get shot – which was the reason, honestly, that she was not the one being shot now.

With a cry, his face beginning to glow, the Doctor stood, but it all vanished as he clapped his hands. "Good girl!"

Everyone else in the room, besides Adelaide, laughed. The guard whose pistol Bill had stolen gave her a nudge and a thumbs up.

"Regeneration a little bit too much?" the Doctor asked Nardole.

"No, I thought it was a nice touch," Nardole frowned. "Too much was Richard asking for our identity papers."

"I couldn't resist it," Richard said, laughing again. "Your face."

Bill waved a hand. "Er, hello? Could somebody tell me what the hell is going on?"

"The Monks are using some type of control over the population of Earth," Adelaide explained. "It's clear that they've manipulated memories, but there's something more. They don't completely trust the Doctor and me yet, so, before we truly trusted you, we needed to ensure that you weren't under their influence. It was an experiment, of sorts, which you, very thankfully, passed."

Bill blinked. "So you...you...you haven't...you haven't turned. You're not working for them."

The Doctor shook his head. "No, of course not. Adelaide and I've spent the last six months planning, and also I've been recruiting all these chaps." He gestured over to the guards. "Deprogramming them one by one, talking some sense into them. And there's loads of them. I could do with a Strepsil." He stepped back to stand beside Adelaide.

Bill looked down to where she'd dropped the gun. "But I shot you."

"Yes, that was the plan," Adelaide said. "We had everyone exchange their ammo for blanks."

One of the guards coughed and the Doctor turned towards him. "Did you forget, Dave? You forgot? Well, that would have really blown the plan, wouldn't it?"

"But you called the Monks."

"I called the kitchen." The Doctor glanced at another guard. "Oh, could you pop down and explain it to them? They're going to be really confused." The guard nodded and left.

Bill turned to Nardole. "And you were in on this too?" Nardole gave a very cheery wave.

"Oh, it was partly his idea."

"Oh. My. God. I am going to beat the sh-"

"Language!" Adelaide interrupted.

The Doctor placed a hand on Adelaide's back. "Oh, come on, come on, we've got the band back together again." He grinned at Adelaide before looking back to Bill. "Now, lovely as it is to have you onboard, literally and metaphorically, Adelaide and I've agreed that we're going to need some help."

Nardole frowned. "So, who're we going to get?"

"The only person we know almost as smart as Adelaide."

Nardole, clearly, looked uncomfortable. "Oh. Oh, I see. Blimey. Has it really come to that?"

|C-S|

The Doctor was very careful as they approached the vault. He didn't seem to want to step away from Adelaide or release her hand, but Adelaide made him in order to step up to the door. "Move into the containment field, please," he told Missy. There was no sound of confirmation beyond the same perpetual light piano playing, but he still soniced the door to reveal the locks, and, slowly, the door opened.

Missy was, indeed, sitting at her piano. She did not turn at the sound of their arrival, instead continued. The Doctor finally stepped away from Adelaide, but it was only to sit in his preferred chair, eyeing the other Time Lady. Adelaide stayed closer to Bill.

"But it's...it's just a woman," Bill said. Missy stopped her playing and turned, clearly curious about this new development. The Doctor and Adelaide had mentioned Bill, though not by name, so Missy was at least aware of the human. But it was clear by the way she stared that it was still surprising and intriguing. "God, the way you two and Nardole have been carrying on, I thought you had some kind of monster in here, or something!"

The Doctor didn't take his attention off of Missy. He'd been far more casual about watching her when it was just Time Lords in the vault, but the addition of Bill clearly made him more nervous. "We do. Missy, Bill. Bill, Missy, the other other Last of the Time Lords."

Bill blinked. "Wait a sec. Why have you got a woman locked in a vault? Because even I think that's weird, and I've been attacked by a puddle."

"She's going cold turkey from being bad." Missy scoffed at that, but said nothing else.

"We wanted to know if you've had any dealings with the Monks before," Adelaide asked.

Missy nodded. "Of course. I've had adventures too, just like you should have had, darling, when you had the chance." She winked at Adelaide. "My whole life doesn't revolve around you two, you know."

"Did you defeat them?"

Again, she nodded. "I did."

Bill moved forward. "How?"

Missy looked towards Bill as though shocked the human dared speak again before turning back to the Time Lords. "I've got some requests. I want some new books, some toys, like a particle accelerator, a 3-D printer, and a pony."

Adelaide raised her eyebrows. "Even I understand that nice people generally don't haggle over the fate of a planet."

"I once built a gun out of leaves. Do you think I couldn't get through a door if I wanted to? I'm here, all right? I'm engaging with the process."

"Okay," Bill said, speaking quickly. "Yeah. Yeah, we can, we can get those things for you."

Missy clapped her hands. "C'est super. So, what have you got so far?"

Adelaide clasped her hands in front of herself as the Doctor stood, beginning his pacing as he thought. "They maintain their power by targeting the section of the brain that specifically works with memory and perception?"

Missy closed the lid of her piano. "Getting warm. Fingers tingling."

"But they target it with what exactly? How do they sustain it?" Missy tracked the Doctor as he spoke, moving to sit on the piano lid. "How do their lies infiltrate the brains of billions? Is it some kind of airborne psychoactive?"

"No, no, that's very, very cold."

"Something that's constantly being fed to the populace, constantly consolidating its hold. Is it in the water?"

Missy leaned on the lid of her piano. "God, no. It's freezing, freezing. Absolutely freezing. Couldn't be colder. Very, very chilly. So, so chilly. This is why you should just let Adelaide do theories, you're terrible at them." She flashed a smile to Adelaide, who didn't reciprocate it. "Oh, come on. I'm bored! You haven't been to see me in six months, neither of you. No one has! Not even that bald bloke who looks like an egg."

"What, you left her alone in here for six months?"

The Doctor frowned at Bill. "We were in prison for six months."

"Adelaide, start at the beginning," Missy turned on the piano lid again to face Adelaide. "How did they get a foothold on a planet?"

"Someone asked for their help."

"Well, not just any someone. It has to be a properly consenting human mind."

"Not proper consent," Adelaide corrected. "I doubt the Monks would allow that someone to be truly informed."

Missy nodded towards her. "Fine, the not-properly-consenting human mind, but still one with a pure request, one without agenda or ulterior motive."

Adelaide's eyes widened. She played at not having realized this, although both she and the Doctor had concluded the truth over the six months they'd had to think. They'd just been hoping that they were wrong, at least on something. "And it's with them that the Monks create a psychic link. This forms an anchor that keeps the Monks in power. It makes a lynchpin."

"Scalding. Ow."

"But the brainwaves of a single person are not powerful enough to contain an entire planet. So they use the statues." The Doctor had had quite a bit to say about the statues the Monks had put up everywhere around Earth.

"You're on fire, you're literally on fire you're so caliente. That's Spanish for hot." Missy winked at her. "I think I'm in love."

"The statues are transmitters. They boost the signal and beam it over the entire world."

"Boom! You've exploded." Missy mimed the matching action. "Now, all you two lovebirds have to do is find whoever opened the door to the Monks in the first place."

The Doctor grinned. This was where their theorizing had stopped. This was where the Doctor had started hoping and Adelaide had tried not to crush him. "Say we already have."

"Oh! Well then, you're sorted. Just kill them. That weakens the Monks' grip on the world."

Adelaide hated that she was right. The Doctor's face fell. "No, no. No, no, that can't be right. There are planets that the Monks have ruled for thousands of years. That's how Adelaide knows about them."

"It's passed on through the bloodline. Usually the lynchpin goes on to lead a normal life, have their own family, and the link is passed down through the generations."

"But the Monks must have worked that out. They've been doing this for millennia."

Missy shrugged. "Why? If the link is passed on, the Monks stay in charge, through they think their ruthlessness and efficiency. But if the lynchpin dies and the link isn't passed on, and the Monks get booted off the planet, well, they just chalk it up to experience. Those are probably the ones you've," she nodded at Adelaide, "heard of. Otherwise, the Monks are quite skilled at not being noticed." She twisted down again and sat at her piano, beginning to play.

The Doctor moved closer to Bill, fists clenched. Adelaide was trying not to look at her. The human held up a hand. "No, it's okay. I want to speak to her."

Missy turned again, stopping playing. "Yes?"

"So when you defeated the Monks, that's how you did it?"

"Well, at this point, all that was left of the bloodline was a wee girl, and I just pushed her into a volcano."

Bill swallowed. "It's me. The lynchpin is me."

Missy looked at the Time Lords. "Awkward."

"So you're saying I have to die."

Again, to the Time Lords. As though she was searching Adelaide's face for any sign of true fear. Matching her to the Doctor. "No. If you were just to die, everyone's false memories would have to fade, and that would take ages. It's actually better if you keep breathing, if your brain just keeps transmitting, well, nothing. That would blot out the residue false memories."

"What would be left of me?"

"You'd be a husk. Completely and irrevocably brain-dead." Missy chuckled. "You couldn't even get on Celebrity Love Island."

The Doctor rushed forward and pulled Bill back from Missy, stopping beside Adelaide. "Even if that was the truth, the fact that you're suggesting it shows there's been no change, no hope, no point. We don't sacrifice people. It's wrong, because it's easy."

Missy exchanged a look with Adelaide as though she would understand and Adelaide did, in a way. Before the war, she hadn't had too much of an issue with killing and death while she'd been doing her experiments. She always attempted to limit excessive death, but if someone needed to die in order to solve something or finish something, she was willing to do it.

She was different now. The Doctor and Caroline had made her different. But that didn't mean she completely disagreed.

"You know, back in the day, I'd burn an entire city to the ground just to see the pretty shapes the smoke made. I'm sorry your plus one doesn't get a happy ending, but, like it or not, I just saved this world because I want to change." Missy glared at the Doctor. "Your version of good is not absolute. It's vain, arrogant, and sentimental. If you're waiting for me to become all that, I'm going to be here for a long time yet."

Adelaide forced herself to unclench her own fists. She knew that, if the Doctor had met her before the war, if they'd interacted, then she may have ended up in a vault. And she may have been different now, she may have liked Bill, she may have wanted something different to happen, but if it was necessary...every rational part of her mind told her that her feelings didn't matter.

If the only way to defeat the Monks was to make Bill braindead, Adelaide was willing to do it. But she was going to attempt to find any other possible solution.

**A/N: I've really loved exploring Adelaide and Missy's relationship in this story. They have such a complex history but have only barely gotten to spend any time together until now.**


End file.
